Blue Flower

Born to a merchant family in Osaka, Nakamura Teii lost the use of his fingers in a fire accident when a child, and learned to paint with a brush held between two hands. Overcoming the disadvantage, he achieved a long, flourishing career as a specialist in bijinga (paintings of beautiful women). After apprenticing under a local ukiyoe artist and a Shijō-school painter, Teii became a pupil of Kitano Tsunetomi in 1919, one of the most celebrated Osaka bijinga artists at the time. Subsequently, he followed his teacher’s footsteps and began participating in the Japan Art Institute’s Inten exhibition in 1923. During that year, Yokoyama Taikan, one of the original founders of the Japan Art Institute, noticed the young painter’s hands and encouraged him with kind words. Throughout his life, Teii expressed profound gratitude to Tsunetomi for teaching him “the way of painting” and Taikan for “the way of heart.” In 1928, Teii married a pupil of Shima Seien and opened his own juku (private school) six years later. Eventually accepted as an Inten member in 1936, Teii’s career thrived in close association with the Institute until his death. After the war, he was honored with numerous awards, including the Minister of Education Award in 1960, the Japan Art Academy Award in 1966, and the Order of the Rising Sun, Fourth Class, in 1972.

In his prosperous career encompassing over half a century, Teii portrayed many types of women including the historical figures of Japan’s past, imaginary Chinese figures, and maiko and geisha of the entertainment world. After a two-month trip to India in 1954, Teii painted Indian women dressed in traditional garb, and in his later years, well-known Japanese actresses and musicians appeared in his paintings. In Teii’s oeuvre, however, depictions of contemporary Japanese women in Western clothes are not numerous, and this makes Blue Flower particularly noteworthy. Against the gold-leafed background, a woman dressed in a white sweater and red skirt is portrayed holding a tiny blue flower. The simple color scheme and unassuming composition imbue the figure with a feeling of freshness. The modest flower is symbolic of the sitter, who emanates a sense of innocence and natural beauty. Teii considered himself a figure specialist rather than a bijinga painter, determined to express the inner quality of his women subjects rather than merely focusing on their external attributes. Blue Flower is a delightful example of what Teii sought to achieve in his work.

Teii’s paintings are in the collection of Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, among others.

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