Kitazawa Eigetsu (1907-1990)
Shōjo (Young Girl), 1930s or early 1940s
Signed: Eigetsu
Sealed: Eigetsu
Framed: Ink and color on paper
34 ¾ x 23 ½ inches (86 x 58 cm)
Born in Kyoto, Kitazawa Eigetsu became a pupil of the Kyoto artist Uemura Shōen in 1923. Shoen was the most celebrated woman painter of her generation and a specialist in bijinga (paintings of beautiful women). After nine years of apprenticing under Shōen, Eigetsu entered the juku (private school) of Tsuchida Bakusen, another renowned Kyoto artist, and received her gō (artist name), Eigetsu, from him. She achieved her first success at the Teiten in 1936, but began her affiliation with the Japan Art Institute two years later. In 1941, Eigetsu became only the second woman after Ogura Yuki (1895-2000) to be admitted as a full member of the Institute. Among the other women artists active at the Institute was Kataoka Tamako, Eigetsu’s contemporary, who would attain the member status a decade later. After the war, Eigetsu began to move away from the naturalistic tendency of Kyoto nihonga, and her move to Tokyo in 1960 marked the turning point in her work. Encouraged by the Institute’s advocacy of history painting and imaginary themes, she expanded her repertoire to include famous historical figures and heroines in literature. Starting with her first participation in 1938, Eigetsu consistently showed her work at the annual Inten exhibit for over forty years except from 1945, the Institute’s wartime hiatus. Many awards and honors were bestowed upon her, including the Minister of Education Award in 1980 for her Aka to kuro (Red and Black), a portrayal of Hosokawa Garasha and Yodogimi, Momoyama-period heroines.
In Shōjo, a fashion-conscious young girl seated in a chair has coordinated the color and design of her obi and accessories with those of her boldly patterned kimono covered with large peonies. The broad velvet ribbon and rolled front bangs show her up-to-date bravado in combining the new Western styles with a traditional garment. Eigetsu depicts all the details of the figure’s hair and clothing with great care, enhancing the sparkling wholesomeness of the image. The polished line and soft, refined color scheme were stylistic features that Eigetsu had learned from her second teacher, Bakusen. The sophisticated naturalism of this painting indicates its earlier date within her oeuvre. As Eigetsu advanced her career under the tutelage of the Japan Art Institute leaders during the 1950s, her painting would begin to incorporate a greater degree of stylization and abstraction, often reinforced with an arbitrary and expressive use of color.
Kitazawa Eigetsu was represented in the Kitazawa Eigetsu exhibition of Tokyo Station Gallery, 1992, and in The 100th Anniversary of the Japan Art Institute: The Lineage of Modern Japanese Art at the Tokyo National Museum, 1998. Her works are in the collection of Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Hiratsuka City Museum, and Yamatane Museum of Art, among others.
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