(1892–1970) was a
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 ...
artist in
Taishō and
Shōwa Japan.
Life
Born in
Sakai
is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...
in 1892, around the age of 13 she moved with her family to in
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
. She taught herself how to paint while assisting her brother with his work in design, going on to study with and . Married in 1921, she moved to
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 ...
in 1927, returning to Japan at the end of the war.
Works
Shima Seien was awarded certificates of commendation for at the sixth ''
Bunten
The is a Japanese art exhibition established in 1907. The exhibition consists of five art faculties: Japanese Style and Western Style Painting, Sculpture, Craft as Art, and Sho (calligraphy). During each exhibition, works of the great masters are ...
'' exhibition in 1912, at the seventh ''Bunten'', and at the ninth ''Bunten''. Her 1918 self-portrait features a facial bruise which she wrote symbolizes the many abuses routinely inflicted upon women by men and the backdrop of an unfinished painting. It is one of three of her works
designated
Designation (from Latin ''designatio'') is the process of determining an incumbent's successor. A candidate that won an election for example, is the ''designated'' holder of the office the candidate has been elected to, up until the candidate's i ...
as Municipal Cultural Properties of Osaka.
This work and two others by the artist, ''Blackened Teeth'' (1920) and Woman (Passion of Black Hair) (1917) were shown in Tokyo in 2021 as part of an exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo titled “''Ayashii'': Decadent and Grotesque Images of Beauty in Modern Japanese Art.”
See also
*
List of Cultural Properties of Japan - paintings (Ōsaka)
*
Uemura Shōen
was the pseudonym of an artist in Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japanese painting. Her real name was Uemura Tsune. Shōen was known primarily for her ''bijin-ga,'' or paintings of beautiful women, in the ''nihonga'' style, although sh ...
*
Yamashita Rin
was a painter of icons for the Japanese Orthodox Church. She was one of the first independent Japanese female artists, the first recognized female '' yōga'' painter. She studied in Russia, and her work can be found in over forty churches across ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shima Seien
1892 births
1970 deaths
20th-century Japanese painters
20th-century Japanese women artists
People from Sakai, Osaka
Nihonga painters