The Japanese art scene in the 1930s, known as the Showa era, was dominated by the rapid modernization and fierce materialism that ripped through Japan. After the fire of Tokyo in 1923, the government took advantage of the destruction to revolutionize the capital. Massive department stores and Western hotels were built, as the Japanese government focused on attracting international tourists for the first time. The fixation on Western capitalistic culture permeated the Showa era art, which reflects a tension between those who embraced the government's ambitious goals and those who opposed it.
"Showa Sophistication," now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), features part of the private collection of a Japanese businessman named Hosokawa Kikizo. Miraculously, the collection managed to survive World War II, after which it was put in a wedding hall in Tokyo. Finally dismantled in 2002, the MFA received about a third of the collection in 2007. Most of the pieces are painted in the traditional medium of watercolor on silk, but the themes are distinctly Western-oriented. Beautiful Japanese women in the latest fashions from Paris take the place of traditional images of courtly geisha girls.
The method of painting in the pieces often differs from the traditional as well; more shading is added and the images are less focused on line. One painting, entitled "Clover," borrows from a convention of European Impressionism by portraying two young women lounging in a large green field, a composition which can be closely compared to the work of artists such as Mary Cassatt.
One piece which glorifies the Westernized technologies of the age is "Foot of the Falls" by Shindo Riemir. "Foot of the Falls" is a set of two large silk screens displaying the bottom of a huge set of waterfalls, most likely the Kegon Falls in Nikko National Park. Although the piece is painted using a traditional medium, not only is it painted in a Western, less linear manner, it also plays off older depictions of waterfalls in Japanese ink paintings.
In many ink paintings, it is customary to show monumental views of waterfalls from the bottom. At the national park where Kegon falls is located, an elevator had been newly installed for visitors to view the falls from this traditional vantage point. By depicting the falls in a traditional format which visitors could now see for themselves without the aid of an artist, Riemir was glorifying the capabilities of the new modern Japanese government.
One particularly striking piece entitled "Tearoom" by the artist Saeki Shunko portrays two fashionable young girls in their place of work, one of the many department stores built during the 1930s. These stores became a source of pride, and, in order to make them as appealing as possible, were staffed with young, attractive Japanese girls.
These girls wore chic uniforms and became the signature of the Japanese department stores. The two girls in "Tearoom" occupy such positions. Both stand in the same yellow and red Western-style dresses on the left side of the canvas in a room with simple shelves, potted plants and a tiled black-and-white floor. They both have one foot sticking out and their hands behind their backs; their haircut and facial expressions are nearly identical. This intense similarity strips the girls of their identity so that they are more closely allied with the decorative plants in the background than human beings. They are simply installed as another way to improve business.
The artist's concern with the dress and ideal facial features of the girls lends itself to a comparison with the older portrayals of geisha girls. In a way, the societal positions of both sets of women are very similar. They were admired for beauty and generated revenue through that beauty.
"Showa Splendor" offers a glimpse into a rapidly expanding, rapidly changing Japan. Some of the images focus on the glory of the new possibilities of a global and Westernized Japan, while others hint that all new developments are just more of the same in glossier packaging. There is a tension between the Western commercial culture and the vestiges of traditional Japanese culture working within the pieces. Adding a sense of foreboding to the works is the fact that while Japan was looking towards a glorious, globalized future, everything came to a screeching halt with the Japanese government's 1938 invasion of China. Once again, the Japanese government would turn in on itself and focus on domestic issues, but the reality of Japan would forever be changed.
--
Through November 8
Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Ave.
617-267-9703
