KAINOSHÔ Tadaoto
(Japan 1894–1978)
- Title
- Beauty looking back
- Alternative title:
- Mikaeri bijin
- Place of origin
-
Japan
- Period
- Shôwa period 1926 - 1988 → Japan
- Year
- circa 1928
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- hanging scroll; ink, colour and gilt on paper
- Dimensions
-
60.3 x 39.5cm image; 145.0 x 42.0 x 47.0cm scroll [height x width x rod]
- Signature & date
- Signed u.r., in Japanese [inscribed in ink] "Tadaoto [and artist's seal]". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1991
- Accession number
- 264.1991
- Copyright
- © Kainoshô Tadaoto
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
As Japan struggled to come to terms with the new worlds of mechanisation and industrialisation, forging closer ties with the countries of the West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japanese artists became embroiled in the processes of tumultuous change. Long established and powerfully entrenched traditions were both challenged and revitalised. In painting two distinctive attitudes emerged. One, known as yôga, followed Western styles; the other, 'nihonga', extended the Japanese tradition. In the nationalistic Taishô (1912-26) and early Shôwa eras (1926-89) 'nihonga' was the dominant style. Kainoshô, from Kyoto, was a leading 'nihonga' artist. In this beguiling figure he synthesises the Japanese aesthetic with qualities of modernity, particularly evidenced in the colours and graphic fluency. The drawing of the face and modelling of the features also betrays some Western influence. In a biography of Kainoshô, Isamu Kurita notes that the artist employed one particular model who, according to his sister, was 'the only woman whom my brother, who preferred men to women, wanted to marry'. The woman was Maruoka Tokuko, quite possibly the subject of this painting. Previously the mistress of a stockbroker, she subsequently married a doctor, while seemingly remaining Kainoshô's constant muse.
Art Gallery Handbook, 1999. pg. 286.
'(Mr Masayoshi Kainoshô (the artist's nephew) and his wife confirmed that the model was Tokuko at an interview with the curator of Japanese art in 1999)' AJIOKA Chiaki, Curator of Japanese art, AGNSW, May 2000.
- Bibliography (7)
-
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 226 (colour illus.).
Jackie Menzies (Australia) (Author), AJIOKA Chiaki (Japan) (Author), John Clark (Australia) (Author), Tsutomu MIZUSAWA (Author), Modern Boy Modern Girl: modernity in Japanese art 1910-1935, Domain, 1998, 70, 71 (colour illus.), 169. cat.no. 64
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 286 (colour illus.).
'Japanese Figure Painting: From the Public to the Personal' by Jackie Menzies, pg. 114-119., Orientations Sep 2000, Sep 2000, 119 (colour illus.). fig.10
Distributed Titles. January - June 2004, United Kingdom, cover (colour illus.). The colour illus. on the cover is a detail of this work.
'A New Dichotomy', The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales 2003, 2003, cover (colour illus.), 278 (colour illus.). The colour illus. on the cover is a detail of this work.
Art speaks Japanese: Japanese language education kit from the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales 2007, 2007, colour illus.. card no. 14
- Exhibition history (2)
-
Modern Boy Modern Girl - modernity in Japanese art 1910-1935, Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, 17 May 1998–28 Jun 1998.
Modern Boy Modern Girl - modernity in Japanese art 1910-1935, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 18 Jul 1998–30 Aug 1998.
