Ikeda Shōen (1886-1917)
Tenarai (Penmanship), 1909
Signed and sealed: Shōen
Two-panel screen: ink, color, and gold on silk
50 x 45 ¼ inches (127 x 143 cm)
Published:
Nippon bijutsu, no. 127 (September 1909). The frontspiece states “a magazine “devoted to painting, sculpture, architecture given to reproducing the best of old and contemporary works.” The illustrations are listed both in Japanese and in English, the latter being the new vogue. Shōen’s screen was entitled, “Penmanship Practising By Miss Shōen Sakakibara,” even though the child in the painting holds a fude. a traditional writing brush.
Ikeda Shōen had a short but prosperous career as a professional painter. Known as the three “en,” Shōen and her rivals—Uemura Shōen of Kyoto and Shima Seien of Osaka—specialized in bijinga (paintings of women) and they contributed greatly to this subjects‘ unprecedented popularity during the 1910s. Moreover, their achievement opened the door for the following generations of women to seek success in the male-dominated art world of Meiji and Taishō Japan. Had she not succumbed to pleurisy and tuberculosis at the age thirty-one, Shōen no doubt would have enjoyed a long, illustrious career.
Born to the wealthy Sakakibara family, Shōen was brought up by unusually liberal-minded parents. Her father, having studied engineering at Rutgers University, dedicated his life to the development of railroads in Japan. As a member of the cultured elite as well, he was a committee member of the Japan Art Association, the important art organization formed during the Meiji period, and enjoyed the literati pursuits of Chinese literature, calligraphy, and painting in his retirement. Shōen’s mother, known to be fluent in English, was a gifted oil painter, who had studied under Kunisawa Shinkurō, one of the pioneer yōga painters. Encouraged by her father, Shōen became a pupil of Mizuno Toshikata at the age of fifteen in 1901 and two years later joined the Ugōkai, a group of emerging Tokyo painters who sought to modernize ukiyoe tradition. Shōen’s debut at the 1906 Bijutsu Kenseikai exhibit was followed by her triumph at the Bunten government exhibition. Starting with the first Bunten in 1907, Shōen won the third prize consecutively for four years. Consistent participation and awards at the Bunten thereafter culminated in her winning of the highest prize in 1916. Shōen also illustrated magazines and serialized novels in newspapers including those by Izumi Kyōka and Tokuda Shūsei, both popular authors at the time. Her 1911 marriage to Ikeda Terukata (1883-1921), an accomplished ukiyoe-inspired figure painter, was regarded an exciting event to be reported in a series of newspaper articles. Frequent collaborators on a painting, the handsome couple attracted a great deal of attention in the Taishō art circle. An excellent example of their joint-works, a pair of hanging scrolls titled Spring and Autumn (ca. 1911), is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
This screen, dated to the time when Shōen was beginning to earn national recognition, amply
demonstrates the young artist’s remarkable talent. The painting represents late-Edo period customs and manners and portrays a little boy learning how to write. Seated at a low desk with traditional writing implements of ink and brush, and his face expressing serious concentration, he repeats the first six hiragana syllables of the Japanese alphabet. The child’s kimono shows a tachibana (wild citrus) decoration, common for a boy’s garment and symbolic of longevity. The true subject of this painting, however, is the young woman who is likely the boy’s sister. With a sense of gentle determination on her beautiful face, she guides the movement of the brush by holding her brother’s hand. Not yet married, she wears a kimono with long sleeves, decorated with cherry blossom and spindle patterns. The impeccable depiction of the tastefully layered kimono and exquisitely patterned obi sash reflects the special forte of the artist, who was known to have designed her own kimono. Shōen leaves the background largely bare in order to engage the viewer to focus on the two figures. The cherry blossom petals scattered around the toy-horse on the ground echo the flowers on the woman’s kimono and subtly suggests that she is in the springtime of her life.
Works by Shōen are in the collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Fukutomi Tarā Collection, among others.
Click on any image for an enlarged view.
