(also known as 岡倉 天心 Okakura Tenshin) was a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
and art critic who in the era of
Meiji- Restoration reform defended traditional forms, customs and beliefs. Outside Japan, he is chiefly renowned for ''
The Book of Tea
''A Japanese Harmony of Art, Culture, and the Simple Life'' (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō (1906) is a long essay linking the role of ''chadō'' (''teaism'') to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and protesting Western caricatures of ...
: A Japanese Harmony of Art, Culture, and the Simple Life'' (1906). Written in English, and in the wake of the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, it decried Western caricaturing of the Japanese, and of Asians more generally, and expressed the fear that Japan gained respect only to the extent that it adopted the barbarities of western militarism.
Early life and education
The second son of Okakura Kan'emon, a former
Fukui Domain treasurer turned silk merchant, and Kan'emon's second wife, Kakuzō was named for the corner warehouse (角蔵) in which he was born, but later changed the spelling of his name to different
Kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
meaning "awakened boy" (覚三).
Okakura learned English while attending a school operated by a Christian missionary, Dr.
James Curtis Hepburn
James Curtis Hepburn (; March 13, 1815 – September 21, 1911) was an American physician, translator, educator, and lay Christian missionary. He is known for the Hepburn romanization system for transliteration of the Japanese language into the ...
, of the
Hepburn romanization system. At 15, he entered the newly renamed
Tokyo Imperial University
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
, where he first met and studied under the
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
-educated art historian
Ernest Fenollosa
Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (February 18, 1853 – September 21, 1908) was an American art historian of Japanese art, professor of philosophy and political economy at Tokyo Imperial University. An important educator during the modernization of J ...
.
Career
In 1886, Okakura became secretary to the minister of education and was put in charge of musical affairs. Later in the same year he was named to the Imperial Art Commission and sent abroad to study
fine art
In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...
s in the Western world. After his return from Europe and the United States, in 1887 he helped found, and a year later became director of, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (東京美術学校 ''Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō'').
The new arts school represented "the first serious reaction to the lifeless conservatism" of traditionalists and the "equally uninspired imitation of western art"
fostered by early Meiji enthusiasts. Limiting himself to more sympathetic aspects of art in the West, at the school, and in a new periodical ''
Kokka
(''lit.'' 'Flower of the Nation') is a periodical of East Asian art, first issued in October 1889. ''Kokka'' was established by Okakura Tenshin, journalist , and a patron of the arts who sought to challenge the primacy of Western art in Meiji ...
,'' Okakura sought to rehabilitate ancient and native arts, honoring their ideals and exploring their possibilities. When, in 1897, it became clear that European methods were to be given ever increasing prominence in the school curriculum, he resigned his directorship. Six months later he renewed the effort, as he saw it, to draw on western art without impairing national inspiration in the
Nihon Bijutsuin
is a non-governmental artistic organization in Japan dedicated to ''Nihonga'' (Japanese style painting). The academy promotes the art of Nihonga through a biennial exhibition, the ''Inten'' Exhibition .
History
The Nihon Bijutsuin was founded b ...
(日本美術院, ''lit. "Japan Visual Arts Academy"''), founded with
Hashimoto Gahō
was a Japanese Painting, painter, one of the last to paint in the style of the Kanō school. He was one of the first five painters to be appointed as an Imperial Household Artist and was one of the most authoritative painters in Japan at that ti ...
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 ...
and thirty-seven other leading artists.
At the same time, Okakura had opposed the
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
ist ''
Haibutsu Kishaku
(literally "abolish Buddhism and destroy Shākyamuni") is a term that indicates a current of thought continuous in Japan's history which advocates the expulsion of Buddhism from Japan. Under the shogunate, obtaining the permission to open or cl ...
'' movement which, in the wake of the
Meiji Restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
had sought to expel
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
from Japan. With Ernest Fenollosa, he worked to repair damaged Buddhist temples, images and texts.
Okakura was a high-profile urbanite who retained an international sense of self. He wrote all of his main works in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. Okakura researched Japan's traditional art and traveled 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 ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
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 ...
, and lived two years in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
during which he engaged in dialogue with
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...
and
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
. Okakura emphasised the importance to the modern world of
Asian culture
The culture of Asia encompasses the collective and diverse customs and traditions of art, architecture, music, literature, lifestyle, philosophy, politics and religion that have been practiced and maintained by the numerous ethnic groups ...
, attempting to bring its influence to realms of art and literature that, in his day, were largely dominated by
Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
. In 1906, he was invited by
William Sturgis Bigelow
William Sturgis Bigelow (1850–1926) was a prominent American collector of Japanese art. The art collection trips he funded in the 1880s helped to form the standards by which Japanese art and culture were appreciated in the West.
In 1909, Bigelo ...
to the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
and became the Curator of its Department of Japanese and Chinese Art in 1910.
Works
![Picture of Okakura Kakuzō](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Picture_of_Okakura_Kakuz%C5%8D.jpg)
His 1903 book on Asian artistic and cultural history, ''The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan'', published on the eve of the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, is famous for its opening paragraph in which he sees a spiritual unity throughout Asia, which distinguishes it from the West:
Asia is one. The Himalayas divide, only to accentuate, two mighty civilisations, the Chinese with its communism of Confucius, and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas. But not even the snowy barriers can interrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal, which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling them to produce all the great religions of the world, and distinguishing them from those maritime peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, who love to dwell on the Particular, and to search out the means, not the end, of life.
In his subsequent book, ''The Awakening of Japan'', published in 1904, he argued that "the glory of the West is the humiliation of Asia."
This was an early expression of
Pan-Asianism
file:Asia satellite orthographic.jpg , Satellite photograph of Asia in orthographic projection.
Pan-Asianism (''also known as Asianism or Greater Asianism'') is an ideology aimed at creating a political and economic unity among Asian people, Asian ...
. In this book Okakura also noted that Japan's rapid modernization was not universally applauded in Asia: ″We have become so eager to identify ourselves with European civilization instead of Asiatic that our continental neighbors regard us as renegades—nay, even as an embodiment of the White Disaster itself."
In ''
The Book of Tea
''A Japanese Harmony of Art, Culture, and the Simple Life'' (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō (1906) is a long essay linking the role of ''chadō'' (''teaism'') to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and protesting Western caricatures of ...
'', written and published in 1906, has been described as "the earliest lucid English-language account of
Zen Buddhism
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
and its relation to the arts". Okakura argued that "Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life".
eaisminsulates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.
None of this, he suggested, was appreciated by the Westerner. In his "sleek complacency", the Westerner views the tea ceremony as but "another instance of the thousand and one oddities which constitute and childishness of the East to him". Writing in the aftermath of the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, Okakura commented that the Westerner regarded Japan as "barbarous while she indulged in the gentle arts of peace", and began to call her civilized only when "she began to commit wholesale slaughter on the
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
n battlefields".
Okakura's final work, ''The White Fox,'' written under the patronage of
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Isabella Stewart Gardner (April 14, 1840 – July 17, 1924) was a leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. She founded the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Gardner possessed an energetic intellectual cur ...
in 1912, was an English-language libretto for the Boston Opera House. The libretto incorporates elements from both
kabuki plays
is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.
Kabuki is thought ...
and
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's epic''
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and 1 ...
'' and may understood, metaphorically, as an expression of Okakura's hoped-for reconciliation of East and West.
Charles Martin Loeffler
Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (January 30, 1861 – May 19, 1935) was a German-born American violinist and composer.
Family background
Charles Martin Loeffler was born Martin Karl Löffler on January 30, 1861, in Schöneberg near Berlin to par ...
agreed to Garner's request to put the poetic drama to music, but the project was never staged.
Death
Okakura's health deteriorated in his later years. "My ailment the doctors say is the usual complaint of the twentieth century—
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied b ...
," he wrote a friend in June 1913. "I have eaten things in various parts of the globe—too varied for the hereditary notions of my stomach and kidneys. However I am getting well again and I am thinking of going to China in September." In August, 1913, "Kakuzo insisted on going to his mountain villa in
Akakura, and finally his wife, daughter and his sister took him there by train. For a week or so, Kakuzo felt a little better and was able to talk with people, but on August 25, he had a heart attack and spent several days in great pain. Surrounded by his family, relatives and his disciples, he passed away on September 2."
Legacy
![Okakura - Le livre du thé, 1927 (page 11 crop)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Okakura_-_Le_livre_du_th%C3%A9%2C_1927_%28page_11_crop%29.jpg)
In Japan, Okakura, along with Fenollosa, is credited with "saving"
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 ...
, or painting done with traditional Japanese technique, as it was threatened with replacement by Western-style painting, or "
Yōga
is a style of artistic painting in Japan, typically of Japanese subjects, themes, or landscapes, but using Western (European) artistic conventions, techniques, and materials. The term was coined in the Meiji period (1868–1912) to distingu ...
", whose chief advocate was artist
Kuroda Seiki
Viscount was a Japanese painter and teacher, noted for bringing Western art theory and practice to a wide Japanese audience.
He was among the leaders of the ''yōga'' (or Western-style) movement in late 19th and early 20th-century Japanese pai ...
. In fact this role, most assiduously pressed after Okakura's death by his followers, is not taken seriously by art scholars today, nor is the idea that oil painting posed any serious "threat" to traditional Japanese painting. Yet Okakura was certainly instrumental in modernizing Japanese aesthetics, having recognized the need to preserve Japan's cultural heritage, and thus was one of the major reformers during Japan's period of modernization beginning with the
Meiji Restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
.
Outside Japan, Okakura influenced a number of important figures, directly or indirectly, who include
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...
, philosopher
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
, poet
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
, and especially poet
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
and heiress
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Isabella Stewart Gardner (April 14, 1840 – July 17, 1924) was a leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. She founded the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Gardner possessed an energetic intellectual cur ...
, who were close personal friends of his. He was also one of a trio of Japanese artists who introduced the wash technique to
Abanindranath Tagore
Abanindranath Tagore (Bengali: অবনীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 August 1871 – 5 December 1951) was the principal artist and creator of the "Indian Society of Oriental Art". He was also the first major exponent of Swa ...
, the father of modern Indian watercolor.
As part of the Izura Institute of Arts & Culture,
Ibaraki University
, Japan, is a national university located in Ibaraki Prefecture, with campuses in the cities of Mito, Ami and Hitachi. It was established on May 31, 1949, integrating these prewar institutions: Mito High School (Mito Kōtō-Gakkō), Ibaraki Normal ...
manages ''
Rokkakudō'', an hexagonal wooden retreat overlooking the sea along the Izura coast in
Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, that was designed by Okakura and built in 1905. It is registered as a national monument.
Books
*''The Ideals of the East'' (London: J. Murray, 1903)
*''The Awakening of Japan'' (New York: Century, 1904)
*''
The Book of Tea
''A Japanese Harmony of Art, Culture, and the Simple Life'' (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō (1906) is a long essay linking the role of ''chadō'' (''teaism'') to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and protesting Western caricatures of ...
'' (New York: Putnam's, 1906)
See also
*
Teaism
''A Japanese Harmony of Art, Culture, and the Simple Life'' (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō (1906) is a long essay linking the role of ''chadō'' (''teaism'') to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and protesting Western caricatures of ...
*
Rokkakudō
*
Tomonubu Imamichi
*
das in-der-Welt-sein
*
Tenshin Memorial Museum of Art, Ibaraki
The opened in Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan in 1997. It has a memorial room dedicated to Okakura Tenshin and his works and displays other items of Japanese art, especially by the artists of the Izura coast.
See also
* Rokkakudō
* ...
References
Additional sources
* Bharucha, Rustom. ''Another Asia: Rabindranath Tagore and Okakura Tenshin.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. .
* "We Must Do a Better Job of Explaining Japan to the World". ''
Asahi Shimbun
is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...
'', August 12, 2005.
*
Benfey, Christopher. ''The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan.'' New York: Random House, 2003. .
* Okakura Kakuzo, ''The Illustrated Book of Tea''. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. 2012. ASIN: B009033C6M
* Westin, Victoria. ''Japanese Painting and National Identity: Okakura Tenshin and His Circle''. Center for Japanese Studies University of Michigan (2003).
External links
*
*
*
*
"History of Japanese Art"by Okakura Kakuzo (English Translation)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okakura, Kakuzo
1863 births
1913 deaths
Japanese writers
English-language writers from Japan
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
People from Yokohama
University of Tokyo alumni
People of Meiji-period Japan
Shinbutsu bunri
History of art in Japan
Japanese magazine founders