Sugoroku (Sugoroku board game)

Little is known about Inagaki Keien, a gifted woman painter of this charming work showing one of the favorite pastimes of the aristocracy. Keien’s name first appears as a participant of the Exhibition of New and Old Art (Shinko bijutsuten) in 1912 sponsored by the Japan Art Association, and winning an award for this painting in the 1917 exhibition. Thereafter, she continued to show her work at this venue, often receiving awards, until her last submission in 1918. 

The Japan Art Association enjoyed its illustrious history as the oldest art organization in modern Japan with its origin in the Dragon Pond Society, which was formed in 1879 as a gathering of government bureaucrats who sought to protect Japanese traditional arts. In 1887 the Dragon Pond Society was reorganized into the Japan Art Association with Prince Arisugawa as its governor. In the following year, the association began sponsoring bi-annual exhibitions, which included not only nihonga and sculpture but also calligraphy and traditional crafts. With its strong imperial connection, the organization championed the conservative faction in Japan’s changing art world. Although its influence waned after the establishment of the Bunten in 1907, the association’s activities continued for many more decades. 

Keien’s Sugoroku earned an honorable mention at the Exhibition of New and Old Art in 1917. The clue to her identity may reside in Inagaki Ranpo (1859-1932), who acted as the Deputy Chief Judge of the 1917 exhibition. Born as Inagaki Motoyoshi, a son of a daimyo of Yamakami fief in present Shiga, Motoyoshi received the title of viscount and became a member of the House of Peers in 1890. He studied nihonga under Taki Katei and used the artist name Ranpo. Although further research is required for confirmation, it can be suggested that Keien was a member of the Inagaki family or related to Inagaki Ranpo. This explains her allegiance to the Japan Art Association rather than the newly established Bunten. Moreover, Keien’s possible aristocratic background would certainly have prevented her from pursuing a career in painting, beyond a flurry of activities during the 1910s. Despite the emergence of many successful women artists during Taishō, painting was regarded as an appropriate hobby but not a suitable occupation for women of high social status.

In Sugoroku, two young women are engaged in a game with white and black pieces placed on a wooden table. Three onlookers, including a child, gather around the players to observe. The game being played here is ban-sugoroku or “board sugoroku” similar to the Western game of backgammon. Believed to have been introduced from China in the sixth or seventh century, it was made illegal several times in Japanese history because the luck-based nature of ban-sugoroku made it a perfect gambling game. The famous Hikone screen in the collection of the Hikone Castle Museum, dating to the early seventeenth-century and designated as a National Treasure, depicts a couple engaged in the same game. 

As represented by this work, Keien specialized in bijinga (paintings of beautiful women) and consistently portrayed the customs and manners of the Edo period. Her talent is evident in the masterful composition and skillful depiction of the figures’ faces and kimono adorned with bold patterns. In the choice of idealized, traditional subject and in the gentle figure depiction—especially of the child— Keien’s work recalls the painting style of Ikeda Shōen (1886-1917), a distinguished Tokyo woman painter, who earned a national reputation as a bijinga specialist during her short life. It is highly probable that Keien studied painting under Shōen and was given the “en” character as part of her artist’s name.

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