![Kaii Higashiyama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Kaii_Higashiyama.jpg)
was a Japanese writer and artist particularly renowned for his
Nihonga
''Nihonga'' (, "Japanese-style paintings") are Japanese paintings from about 1900 onwards that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years ...
style paintings.
As one of the most popular artists in post-war Japan, Higashiyama was awarded the
Japan Art Academy
is the highest-ranking official artistic organization in Japan. It is established as an extraordinary organ of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁, Bunkacho) in the thirty-first article of the law establishing the Ministry of Ed ...
Prize in 1956 and the
Order of Culture
The is a Japanese order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japan's art, literature, science, technology, or anything related to culture in general; recipien ...
in 1969.
Biography
![Kphsam01s3872](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Kphsam01s3872.jpg)
Born in
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
to parents Kosuke and Higashiyama Kaii, he was given the first name Shinkichi but later changed this to Kaii. From age three to 18 he lived in
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
where he attended Kobe Junior High School (presentl
Hyogo Prefectural High School.
In 1921 he entered the ''Nihonga'' department of Tokyo School of Fine Arts (currently
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...
). Higashiyama graduated with commendation in 1931 and entered the school's research department, where he spent two years training under Somei Yuki.
In 1933, he boarded a cargo ship bound for Europe and began his studies in Western art history at
Berlin University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
, where he studied from 1933 to 1935. At this time his work entered an art competition during the
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...
in Berlin.
On November 21, 1940 he married Sumi Kawasaki, the eldest daughter of painter Sumi Kawasaki, and moved to Saginomiya in Tokyo. In July 1945, he was drafted into the army and received
anti-tank
Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first deve ...
training and was demobilized later that year. He spent a lot of time travelling, mostly in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, but also made several trips to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. In 1962 he travelled around the
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...
.
In 1947, he received the special prize at ''
Nitten'', the largest competition art exhibition in Japan. This fueled the development of his own style focusing on confrontation and contemplation of nature.
In 1950, he exhibited the painting "Road" at the 6th Nitten Exhibition, where his sympathetic and simplistic treatment of the subject matter was well received by the art world and the public alike.
In 1950, after the death of his mother, he moved to
Ichikawa, Chiba
240px, Ichikawa City Hall
is a city in western Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 491,716 in 251,142 households and a population density of 8559 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . The city has a conc ...
.
He traveled to Scandinavian countries, Germany, Austria, and China, and drew many works themed the sceneries of these countries. On January 12, 1985, Higashiyama together with
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
and
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...
participated in the "Global-Art-Fusion" project. This was a
Fax art
Fax art is art specifically designed to be sent or transmitted by a facsimile machine, where the "fax art" is the received "fax". It is also called telecommunications art or telematic art. According to art historians Annmarie Chandler and Norie ...
project, initiated by the conceptual artist Ueli Fuchser, in which a fax was sent with drawings of all three artist within 32 minutes around the world—from Düsseldorf (Germany) via New York (USA) to Tokyo (Japan), received at Vienna's Palais-Liechtenstein Museum of Modern Art. It was meant as a statement for peace during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
in the 1980s.
Murals
In 1953, he was selected to paint 27 ''fusama-e'' murals for a Japanese house, called
Shofuso Japanese House and Gardens
Shofuso (Pine Breeze Villa), ( ja, 松風荘) also known as Japanese House and Garden, is a traditional 17th century-style Japanese house and garden located in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park on the site of the Centennial Exposition of 1876. ...
, which was being constructed in Nagoya in 1953 for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Higashiyama, who had been a classmate of architect
Junzo Yoshimura, was chosen above a number of other well-known Japanese painters such as
Maeda Seison
was the art-name of a nihonga painter in the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan. His legal name was Maeda Renzō. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary Japanese painters, and one of the leaders of the Nihonga movement.
Biography
...
and
Yokoyama Taikan
was the art-name of a major figure in pre-World War II Japanese painting. He is notable for helping create the Japanese painting technique of ''Nihonga''.
Early life
Yokoyama was born in Mito city, Ibaraki Prefecture, as the eldest son of S ...
, to paint mountain scenes with black ink on the fusuma and the tokonoma alcove. The Shofuso was moved to Philadelphia in 1958 where the murals were on view until they were destroyed by vandals in 1974.
In 1960, he painted a large mural entitled "Sun, Moon, and The Four Seasons", for the state dining room the
Tōgū Palace
In Japan, the traditionally does not refer to a single location, but to any residence of the Imperial Crown prince. As Prince Akishino, the current heir presumptive, is not a direct male descendant to the Emperor and not an Imperial Crown Prince ...
of the Crown Prince.
A second imperial commission followed, resulting in the 1968 mural, "Tide at Daybreak" (''Asaake no Ushio''), which is part of the ''Nami-no-ma'' hall of
Tokyo Imperial Palace
The is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda district of the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains several buildings including the where the Emperor has his living quarters, the where va ...
. This large painting is apparently modeled on the rocks of the
Oumi Island ''Oumi'' is a Swedish television series in 24 episodes broadcast on Kanal 5.
The series was directed by Hans Pihl and Pontus Ströbaek, the host was Mi Ridell as Oumi. Ridell used make-up, posed as Japanese and told famous Swedes that they were ...
in Yamaguchi prefecture. The dimensions of the painting are approximately 3.8 meters in height and about 14.3 meters horizontally.
He also painted several murals of Japanese and Chinese landscapes, for the
Tōshōdai-ji
is a Buddhist temple of the Risshū sect in the city of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, Japan. The Classic Golden Hall, also known as the ''kondō'', has a single story, hipped tiled roof with a seven bay wide facade. It is considered the archetyp ...
temple, completed in 1975 and 1980.
Honors
*1950 Appointed as a member of the Nitten Exhibition Jury.
*1956 Received the Japan Art Academy Award for "Twilight”.
*1965 Appointed as a member of Japan Art Academy, and accepted the post of Shin-Nitten Exhibition director.
*1968 Appointed as a member of the Specialist Committee of the Council for the Protection of Foreign Treasures.
*1969 Awarded the Mainichi Art Award for "Tide at Daybreak".
*1969 Awarded the
Order of Cultural Merit and commended as a Person of Cultural Merit.
*1974 Became Chairman of the Board at Kaiso-Nitten.
*1975 Commissioned by the Emperor to paint "Spring Daybreak" as a state gift to Queen Elizabeth II.
*1984 Selected to join as a member of the Federal Republic of Germany's Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste.
*1992 Awarded the UNESCO Picasso Gold Medal.
*1990 Higashiyama Kaii Gallery was opened in Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum.
*1994 Higashiyama Kaii Art Gallery was opened in Ichikawa City Life Learning Center.
*2005
Sakaide Kagawa Prefectural Higashiyama Kaii Setouchi Art Museum
Kagawa Prefectural Higashiyama Kaii Setouchi Art Museum ( ja, 香川県立東山魁夷せとうち美術館, Kagawa Kenritsu Higashiyama Kaii Setouchi Bijutsukan) is an art museum dedicated to Japanese painting master Kaii Higashiyama. The museu ...
was opened.
See also
*
Yasushi Sugiyama
was a Japanese painter of the Shōwa and Heisei eras, who practiced the nihonga style of watercolour painting.
Biography
Sugiyama was born in 1909 in Asakusa, the eldest son of the owner of a stationery shop. In 1928, Sugiyama enrolled in t ...
*
Togyū Okumura
*
Maeda Seison
was the art-name of a nihonga painter in the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan. His legal name was Maeda Renzō. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary Japanese painters, and one of the leaders of the Nihonga movement.
Biography
...
*
List of Nihonga painters
This is an alphabetical list of painters who are known for painting in the ''Nihonga'' style. It has to be noted that some artists also painted in the western ''Yōga'' style, and that the division between the two groups could be blurred at poin ...
Sources
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External links
Lingnam School - Higashiyama KaiiNAGANO PREFECTURAL SHINANO ART MUSEUM / HIGASHIYAMA KAII GALLERY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higashiyama, Kaii
1908 births
1999 deaths
20th-century Japanese painters
Nihonga painters
Buddhist artists
People from Yokohama
Recipients of the Order of Culture
Tokyo School of Fine Arts alumni
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Olympic competitors in art competitions