refers to the cultural and intellectual movement of Japanese

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

during the Taishō era, influenced by European Romanticism. The

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 ...

for ''Roman'' is an '' ateji'' first introduced by Natsume Sōseki. According to the 2009 edition of ''Pocketbook of Taisho Romanticism - The World of Nostalgic & Modern -'' written by Keiko Ishikawa, who works at the in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, the two words "Taishō" and "Roman" were combined because

Yumeji Takehisa was a Japanese poet and painter. He is known foremost for his ''Nihonga'' illustrations of ''bijin'', beautiful women and girls, though he also produced a wide variety of works including book covers, serial newspaper illustrations, ''furoshiki ...

's works of art in the Taishō era was introduced and described as "romantic" in 1974, the 90th anniversary of his birth. Ishikawa reported findings of her research in the 2009 edition of the Pocketbook, stating that the term was first used at the "Taishō Roman" exhibition in October 1978 held at the

Suntory Museum of Art The is an arts museum located in Tokyo Midtown, Roppongi, Tokyo. It is owned by the Suntory corporation. The collection theme of the art works is "Art in life" and they mainly have Japanese antiques. History In 1961, Suntory President Keizo ...

in Tokyo. However, she rewrote in the 2021 edition of the Pocketbook that the term was established in the 1970s, due to earlier usage. Takehisa was one of the most popular painters and poets in the Taishō era, and often cited as a figure representing the culture of Taishō Roman. According to ''Yumeji Takehisa “Senoo Sheet Music” Cover Art Complete Collection'' by Minami Takehisa (Yumeji Takehisa's granddaughter) and Naoki Ōhira, he contributed more than 270 cover arts and also 24 lyrics to ", or the

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

books printed by Senoo Music Publishing Company, and his artwork was a major factor in the popularity and commercial success of the books.

References

Submovements of Romanticism Taishō period in culture Japanese aesthetics Japanese subcultures {{Japan-hist-stub

See also

References