Ishikawa Haruhiko (1901-1980)
Wasō no Onna (Woman Dressed in Kimono)
Signed: Haruhiko and sealed Haruhiko
Hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on silk
45 ¼ x 14 inches (115 x 35.5 cm)
Authentication by the artist’s son: Made by Ishikawa Haruhiko, Wasō no Onna (Woman Dressed in Kimono). Dated and signed: May 24, 1991 (Heisei 3), Ishikawa Akira.
This stylish young beauty is dressed in a furisode, a kimono worn by an unmarried woman, yet she is wearing a gold ring. This could be the symbol of an engagement as a new imported Western custom, or just simply an imported adornment. Her gaily-patterned obi and fashionable zōri suggest a formal occasion. It is possible that it is a portrait of an acquaintance of the artist.
Haruhiko was born with the given name of Toshiharu or Toshiji and began to use the artist’s seal (gō) of Haruhiko around 1937. He came from a small town in Kyoto prefecture and entered the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts in 1914. Although he never formally graduated he rapidly became involved in the art circles of Kyoto and was influenced mainly by the two Kyoto artists, Murakami Kagaku (1888-1939) and Irie Hakō (1887-1948). Kagaku had studied painting at the same school under Takeuchi Seihō and in 1918 helped found the Association for the Creation of National Painting (Kokuga Sōsaku Kyōkai). Although Haruhiko aspired to go to Tokyo for further studies, he was moved by Kagaku’s efforts in creating this new association and decided to stay in Kyoto, entering a painting in their first exhibition in 1918. The following year, in 1919, Haruhiko became a student of Irie Hakō. Hakō had been born and educated in Kyoto but traveled abroad and after being exposed to the work of the Dutch realist painters Hans Holbein (1497-1543) and Abercht Durer (1471-1528) returned to paint Western scenes in a Japanese manner. He later turned to painting Buddhist subjects. Haruhiko also tried his hand at this Western style of painting, as shown in his self-portrait of 1924 and the1926 painting, “Woman Holding Sazanqua Flower,” both of which were later chosen for exhibit.
Becoming active in many of the new artists associations springing up in Kyoto at the time, he co-founded the Creative Life Club (Seisakusha) with like-minded artists and entered a work in their first show, winning the praise of his mentor Murakami Kagaku, with whom he helped found yet another new group (Seisetsusha). At the same time he continued to exhibit with the Association for the Creation of National Painting where two of his works were accepted for their 1924 exhibition. In 1928, he joined a large segment of the nihonga painters in a new group called the New Tree (Shinjukai) and entered in their first exhibition the last work he would display in a public exhibition. Following in the footsteps of his teacher Hakō he turned to Buddhist subjects and seems to have been quite successful. After the war, in 1957, he received a major commission to do a mural for the Hōzanji Temple in Nara.
Haruhiko’s paintings can be found in the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, among others.
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