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 ...

painter, noted for his work in introducing the

Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

trend, especially

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

into Japanese ''

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 ...

'' (Western-style) painting in the early 20th century.

Biography

Yorozu was born in what is now part of

Hanamaki is a Cities of Japan, city in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 94,691, and a population density of 100 persons per km², in 37,773 households. The total area of the city is . Hanamaki is famous as the birthplace ...

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...

in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

of northern Japan as the eldest son of a merchant. He developed an interest in painting at an early age, and based on what he read in Oshita Tojiro’s “A Guide to Watercolors”, taught himself to paint

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

s. In 1903, he traveled to

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 ...

with his cousin where he attended the Waseda Junior High School, and briefly studied

Zen meditation ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...

. In 1905, he began to attend the meetings of the '' Hakubakai'' art circle established by

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 pa ...

. In 1906, he traveled to 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 ...

as part of a

Rinzai The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan E ...

Zen 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 ...

mission, but with the intention of enrolling in an art school in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, but returned to Japan the same year due to the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

. In 1907, he was admitted to the Western Art Department of the Tokyo Fine Arts School. Yorozu selbst 1912a

In 1910 he formed the

Absinthe Absinthe (, ) is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from several plants, including the flowers and leaves of ''Artemisia absinthium'' ("grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. Historical ...

Group with his classmates Hirai Tamenari and Yamashita Tetsunosuke. In 1911, Yorozu graduated, with his graduation work, a

post-impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

piece bordering on

fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

titled ''Nude Beauty'', winning considerable critical acclaim. In the same year he participated in the ''Fyuzankai'' Exhibition with Saito Yori and

Kishida Ryūsei is a Japanese politician serving as Prime Minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021. A member of the House of Representatives, he previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017 and ...

, in which he displayed "Head of a Woman" (also known as "Woman with a Boa"). The society was disbanded the following year. From 1914-1916 Yorozu returned to Iwate Prefecture to apply himself to his paintings, supported largely by the earnings of his wife. He painted a variety of

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...

and

still-life painting A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

s, and experimented with the beginnings of

. At the 4th ''Nika'' Exhibition held in 1917, he displayed "Leaning Woman" and "Still-life with a Brush Stand", which provoked wide critical acclaim. During this time he also displayed still-life works at exhibitions held by 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 ...

and the

Inten 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 ...

. In 1919, he moved to

Chigasaki, Kanagawa is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 242,798 and a population density of 6800 people per km². The total area of the city is . Geography The city is located on the eastern bank of the Sagami ...

due to health reasons. After displaying four of his works including "Town Looked Down through the Branches" at the 6th ''Nika'' Exhibition, he was selected as a member of the ''Nika'' Society. However, his "Three Bathers" was rejected for display at the ''Teiten'' Exhibition in 1921. Yorozu participated as an invited member of the ''Shunyokai'' in 1922, and became a member of the Japan Watercolor Painting Association. In 1923 he established the ''Enchokai'' together with Kobayashi Tokusaburo, Maeda Kanji, Hayashi Takeshi and Onchi Kashiro. Yorozu died at his home in Chigasaki at the age of 41, from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Many of his works are now displayed at the Yorozu Tetsugoro Museum, in his hometown of Hanamaki, Iwate.

Noted Works

*, 1912, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Important Cultural Propert

*, 1912, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Important Cultural Property *, 1912–1913, Iwate Prefectural Museum *, 1912–1913, Iwate Prefectural Museum *, 1915, Iwate Prefectural Museum

References

* Keene, Donald. ''Dawn to the West''. Columbia University Press (1998). * Mason, Penelope. ''History of Japanese Art''. Prentice Hall (2005). * Miyoshi, Masao. ''Postmodernism and Japan''. Duke University Press (1986). * Sadao, Tsuneko. ''Discovering the Arts of Japan: A Historical Overview''. Kodansha International (2003). * Schaarschmidt-Richter, Irmtraud. ''Japanese Modern Art. Painting from 1910 to 1970''. Edition Stemmle (2000). * Volk, Alicia. ''In Pursuit of Universalism: Yorozu Tetsugoro and Japanese Modern Art''. University of California Press (2010). * Weisenfeld, Gennifer. ''MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931''. University of California Press (2001).

External links

Hanamaki City home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yorozu, Tetsugoro 1885 births 1927 deaths People from Hanamaki, Iwate People of Meiji-period Japan 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Japan Japanese portrait painters 20th-century Japanese painters