Edoardo Chiossone
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Edoardo Chiossone (1833 - April 11, 1898) was an Italian o-yatoi gaikokujin. He was born in Arenzano, near Genoa, in 1833. In 1847 he enrolled in the Accademia Ligustica, where he specialized in engraving, and graduated in 1855. In 1857 he entered the atelier of Raffaele Granara and made several engravings of famous art works. In 1867 he started working for the Italian National Bank and was sent to the Dondorf-Naumann company in Frankfurt to be trained in the making of paper money. While he was there, the company began making bank notes for the Japanese government, and in 1874 he was sent to London to learn new printing techniques. At this point he was invited to go to Japan, and accepted.
Many of the portraits by Chiossone have been lost, and others only survive in reproduction, such as the likeness of Fukuzawa Yukichi on the 10,000 yen note; they can all be said to have been faithful likenesses.
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[edit] Chiossone in Japan
Chiossone arrived in Japan on January 12, 1875. The government Printing Bureau (Insatsu Kyoku) which was part of the Finance Ministry (Okurasho) was under the directorship of Tokuno Ryosuke of Satsuma, who was eager to introduce modern machinery and techniques. The practical implementation of this policy was entirely the work of Chiossone, who founded printing companies such as Toppan Insatsu, trained the Japanese in printing techniques, designed official papers and stamps, taught the art of making printing ink and printing paper (with a watermark in it), and taught how to make many copies from one plate.
After five months he was offered a three-year contract with a monthly salary of 450 yen and a house; this was one of the highest salaries paid to a foreigner, and twice that of Antonio Fontanesi who was hired to teach oil painting, and his house was outside the foreign enclave in Tsukiji (he lived first in Kanda and then in Kojimachi, with a retinue of servants). At the end of 1875 he made his first portrait, an engraving of the German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold. He also designed the "koban" stamps which came out in 1876, with a watermark; as there was a taboo against using the emperor's portrait, he had to resort to other images, such as the imperial chrysanthemum.
Other portraits followed in 1876, those of Okubo Toshimichi, Saigō Tsugumichi (younger brother of Takamori, who was Minister of the Navy and Home Minister), and William Chapman Ralston of the Bank of California. The next year the Emperor Meiji, attended by a hundred persons including Prince Arisugawa and Iwakura Tomomi visited the Printing Bureau and Chiossone's working room (destroyed in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake). That year Chiossone also designed the first bank note, a one-yen note with the figure of Daikoku, the god of wealth. The next year he produced the first bank note containing a human figure, the image of the legendary Empress Consort Jingū.
In 1879 he went on a trip around Japan with Tokuno Ryosuke to record ancient art works and monuments; 510 photographs were taken and Chiossone made 200 drawings. Tokuno recorded in his diary, published ten years later, that the two of them had had long conversations. The fruits of this trip were illustrated albums produced between 1880 and 1883.
In 1883 Chiossone was asked to make a portrait of Saigō Takamori, who had already been dead for six years; for this purpose he combined the features of Saigō's younger brother and a cousin of his, and this became the standard portrait and the model for the statue in Ueno Park. Chiossone also made a portrait of Tokuno two months before he died in that year, and designed his tombstone.
In 1888 he received his highest recognition, when he was asked to produce a portrait of the Emperor, to be used as the official state portrait. The only existing portrait at that time was a photograph taken ten years before, and the Emperor refused to be photographed again. So the grand chamberlain Tokudaiji Sanemori arranged that Chiossone should sketch the Emperor at the palace from behind a screen. From his sketches he made two faithful likenesses of Meiji, one in military uniform and the other in civilian clothes, and these were then photographed and became the official "photographs" of the Emperor and served as the basis of all the familiar representations of Meiji.
Besides being engaged in painting portraits, which included further portraits of the Empress, the future Emperor Taisho, General Oyama Iwao, Iwakura Tomomi and Sanjo Sanetomi (a court noble active in politics), Chiossone was constantly kept busy at the Printing Bureau, producing plates for notes, stamps and bonds; in 1888 he produced a 5‑yen bank note with the figure of Sugawara Michizane on it, and, as his last work before retiring, a 100‑yen note with Fujiwara Katamari (614‑669) on it. In 1891 he retired with 3,000 yen taishokukin (severance pay) and an annual pension of 1,200 yen.
[edit] Death
On April 11, 1898, Chiossone died of heart failure at his home in Kojimachi, and was buried in Aoyama Cemetery (where his tomb can still be seen in the foreign section). The papers brought out long articles on his death, and the "Japan Weekly Mail" spoke of his high reputation both for his artistic ability and for his friendly nature.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Report of an October 1994 Lecture to the Asiatic Society of Japan by Professor Lia Beretta. This was the source of much of the above, and originally it was adapted from "The Asiatic Society of Japan Bulletin No. 9", November 1994.
- Interview about Chiossone - Podcast - Donatella Failla, Director of Museo d’Arte Orientale E. Chiossone talks about Chiossone and his grave in Aoyama Cemetery
