2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

TSUCHIDA Bakusen: Explication on Portraiture and Position in the Modern Kyoto Painting Circle

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23520167
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Study of the arts/History of the arts/Arts in general
Research Institution	Kyoto Institute of Technology
Principal Investigator	UEDA Aya 京都工芸繊維大学, 文化遺産教育研究センター, 特任助教 (30600291)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	土田麥僊 / 近代日本美術 / 日本画 / 京都画壇 / 人物画
Research Abstract	TSUCHIDA Bakusen(1887-1936) was a Nihonga (the Japanese painting) painter, who painted many Maiko paintings in modern Kyoto. Neverthless, his works have not been classified into so-called Bijinn-ga (the genre painting of beautiful women), unlike the paintings of UEMURA Shoen, KABURAKI Kiyokata and ITO Shinsui. This fact likely suggests that his works were distinctive in terms of painting styles, such as fine lines and bright flat color, as well as painting aimes. By using two analytical viewpoints, personality and symbol, this study reveals that his painting presents high personality of individual model while at the same time symbolizing yearning for graceful Buddhist world. His works combine the personality of Maiko face with religious yearning for the Buddhist painting of Heian period. The image of two, Maiko and Buddha, are far apart from each other, and therefore, Bakusen's portraiture that combined both of them creates a new fascination.