Kawai Gyokudō

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Kawai Gyokudō

Kawai Gyokudō
Birth name Kawai Yoshisaburō
Born 24 November 1873
Ichinomiya, Aichi, Japan
Died 30 June 1957
Tokyo, Japan
Nationality Japanese
Field Painter
Movement Nihonga
In this Japanese name, the family name is Kawai.

Kawai Gyokudō (川合 玉堂 Kawai Gyokudō?, 24 November 1873 - 30 June 1957) was the pseudonym of a Japanese painter in the nihonga school, active from Meiji through Showa period Japan. His real name was Kawai Yoshisaburō.

Gyokudō was born in what is now Ichinomiya city, Aichi Prefecture, as the eldest son of a paper, ink and brush merchant. He went to Kyoto in 1887 to study under Kono Bairei of the Maruyama-Shijo school of painting. In 1896, he moved to Tokyo and he became the student of Hashimoto Gahō, of the Kano school. He also studied Western-style painting and developed a highly personal style, especially in the field of landscape painting.

Gyokudō is noted for his polychrome and occasionally monochrome works depicting the mountains and rivers of Japan in the four seasons, with humans and animals shown as part of the natural landscape. Among his representative works are Futsuka zuki (“The New Moon”), Yuku haru (“The Departing Spring”), Mine-no-yu (“Evening at the Mountain Top”), and Bosetsu (“Snow in the Evening”).

In 1898, Gyokudō joined with Okakura Tenshin and Yokoyama Taikan to found the Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Fine Art Academy). In 1907, Gyokudo was selected as a judge for the first annual Bunten Exhibition. He became a teacher at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (the forerunner of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) in 1919.

In 1940, he was awarded the Order of Culture by the Japanese government.

Most of his works are preserved and displayed at the Gyokudo Art Museum, in Ome, Tokyo.

[edit] Major works

  • Fleeting spring (1916)
  • Tinted Rain (1940)

[edit] References

  • Briessen, Fritz van. The Way of the Brush: Painting Techniques of China and Japan. Tuttle (1999). ISBN: 0804831947
  • Conant, Ellen P., Rimer, J. Thomas, Owyoung, Stephen. Nihonga: Transcending the Past: Japanese-Style Painting, 1868-1968. Weatherhill (1996). ISBN: 0834803631
  • Kimura, Ihee. Four Japanese painters: Taikan Yokoyama, Gyokudo Kawai, Shoen Uemura, Kiyokata Kaburaki (JPS picture books). Japan Photo Service (1939). ASIN: B000888WYA

[edit] External links

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