News Release
ATZ2001009̲E̲J

October 9, 2020
Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection
Special Section: Aoki Shigeru, Sakamoto Hanjiro, Koga
Harue, and Their Age: Artists from Kurume
November 3(Tuesday), 2020-January 24(Sunday), 2021

SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Three Grazing Horses,
1932 Oil on canvas

Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation (Director: IshibashiHiroshi) is delighted to announce its
upcoming special section, Aoki Shigeru, Sakamoto Hanjiro,
Koga Harue, and Their Age: Artists from Kurume. in theCollection Exhibition.
At the Artizon Museum, the fourth-floor gallery presents
Selections from the Collection, in which selected
works from the more than 2,800 works in the Ishibashi
Foundation Collection are displayed. The Special
Section area there will present a special exhibition, eachplanned with a different theme, that will shed
new light on works in the collection.

The heart of the Ishibashi Foundation s collection of modern Western-style Japanese paintings consistsof works by Aoki Shigeru and Sakamoto Hanjiro. Like Ishibashi Shojiro, the founder of the Bridgestone
Museum of Art, the Artizon s predecessor, they were from the city of Kurume, in Fukuoka prefecture, andwere the artists who inspired Shojiro to begin collecting seriously. Kurume and the neighboring Chikugo
region produced many artists in the late Meiji through the Taisho and early Showa periods (1890-1940);
the context was the presence there in the Meiji period of an instructor in Western-style art and the central
roles that Aoki and Sakamoto, who both trained under that teacher, played in Kurume s art circles. The
many other artists who, fascinated by Aoki s and Sakamoto s towering presence, went to Tokyo, havealso left their mark on the history of Western-style painting in Japan. Among them, Matsuda Teisho, whowas four years younger than Aoki and Sakamoto, watched over younger artists and connected them tomore senior figures in the art world. This exhibition focuses on the creative works and local connections
that Matsuda makes clear in introducing the highly productive Western-style painting school associatedwith Kurume, through the works of Aoki, Sakamoto, and Koga, as well as Matsuda, Takashima Yajuro, andTakata Rikizo.
Artizon museum has recently acquired twenty-five sketches by Aoki, from his student days. They are his
depictions of the many masks he saw on exhibit when making regular museum visits, from about 1900.
These mask sketches are of great import for considering the context in which Aoki created his Paradise

under the Sea and other paintings based on myths. Most have not, however, been exhibited since 1980;
they have come to be known as thesecret sketches.

This exhibition includes three of those newly

acquired works by Aoki. We are also able to welcome at last one of Sakamoto s oil paintings of the moon,which had not been in the collection. Sakamoto is known for his many treatments of that subject; thisexhibition is the first public display of his Dim Light, a painting of the moon from the last year of his life
and, in fact, his last work.

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Highlights①
AOKI Shigeru

A Gift of the Sea
1904
Oil on canvas
Important Cultural Property
Aoki Shigeru is the leading artist of the age of Romanticism. During his brief life, which ended at twentyeight, he was always at the leading edge of his times.
In mid July, 1904, he set out on a sketching trip with his friends, the artists Sakamoto Hanjiro, Morita
Tsunetomo, and Fukuda Tane, to Mera, at Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture. A Gift of the Sea is his masterwork
from that month and a half in the fishing village, which faces the Pacific s Kuroshio Current. Sakamotolater wrote that he had encountered a spectacular scene of fishermen returning with a big catch. After hewent back and told Aoki about it, Aoki started working on A Gift of the Sea the next day. Sakamoto alsowrote that the painting was utterly unlike the actual scene. Aoki s transformation of the scene afterhearing the eyewitness description reveals his imaginative brilliance and creativity.
The painting shows ten naked men carrying three sharks on their backs, moving along the beach in twolines. The figures in the middle of the group are bathed in strong light shining directly from the front.
Aoki had absorbed the landforms and the customs of Mera and recreated them, in wild brushwork, in atheme filled with youthful energy. Since Aoki himself said nothing about what inspired him, researchers
have offered various interpretations: the Parthenon friezes, the Pre-Raphaelites, an advertisement formedicine, or Mera s shrine festival.

②AOKI Shigeru, Paradise under the Sea, 1907
Oil on canvas
Important Cultural Property
Aoki Shigeru, who loved books, read widely in world mythology and createdseveral works based on Japanese myths, including this one from the Kojiki(Record of Ancient Matters). Yamasachi-hiko has lost a fishhook belonging to
his brother, Umisachi-hiko, and descends to the bottom of the sea to find it.
There he sees the palace, glowing like fish scales, of the god of the sea,
Wadatsumi, and a well at its entrance. A maid comes to draw water from thewell, sees Yamasachi-hiko sitting in a tree, and calls Toyotama-hime, the sea
god s daughter. The woman in the red garment, exchanging glances withYamasachi-hiko, is Toyotama-hime; the maid is in white, on the right.
Toyotama-hime and Yamasachi-hiko marry, and their son becomes thefounder of the imperial family.
The composition, with three figures arranged on the long, vertical picture
plane, shows the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites in Britain. Aoki also said that
he was influenced by Gustave Moreau s use of color. He made this painting
for the Tokyo Industrial Exhibition, in the spring of 1907. He left many
paintings unfinished, but this one is an exception. Natsume Soseki saw it atthe exhibition and wrote, two years later, in the novel Sorekara (And then),
At an exhibit the other day, someone named Aoki had a painting of a tallwoman standing at the bottom of the ocean. Of all the entries, Daisuke hadfound this one alone to be pleasingly executed.

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③AOKI Shigeru, Sketches of Bugaku Masks, c.1900-1903
Pencil and wash on paperThis exhibition presents three of the twenty-fivemasksketches by Aoki Shigeru that the museum has newly added
to the collection. The work shown here is one of those sketches.
They are his depictions of the great variety of masks he saw on
exhibit when making regular visits to the Tokyo Imperial
Museum (now the Tokyo National Museum), from about 1900.
In the margins around the sketches he has noted explanationsof the masks and the colors used; these notes communicate
how passionately he engaged with the forms of gigaku (anancient mask dance) and bugaku (Japanese court musicaccompanied by masked dancing), which reached Japan atabout that time that the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) andNihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), Japan s first histories, filledwith myths, were compiled. Our collection includes several ofhis masterpieces on mythological themes, including Onamuchino-mikoto and Paradise under the Sea. Aoki s friend SakamotoHanjiro owned the mask sketches, which his heirs discovered in
his studio after Sakamoto s death. Since most have not been
exhibited since 1980, they came to be called thesecretsketches.

④KOGA Harue, From the Upstairs Window, 1922
Oil on canvas
Koga Harue showed this work, along with Burial (1922, Jodoshu
Head Temple Chion-in), at the ninth Nika Exhibition, receiving
the Nika Prize for this his debut on the central art world stage. It
depicts the view from the second floor of the inn where hestayed in Chikuzen Kanezaki (Munakata, Fukuoka prefecture),
with the window frame and part of the interior of his room
included. The triangular thatched roof, rectangular window
frame around it, and cloudless blue sky contrast with the round
fruit, teapot, and washbasin placed in the foreground to create
a fresh composition. It was also shown at the joint Nikakai andSalon d'automne show in Paris the next year.

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⑤SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Three Grazing Horses, 1932
Oil on canvas
Sakamoto Hanjiro, painter of many horses, cows, Noh masks,and moons, was the elementary school substitute teacher fromwhom Ishibashi Shojiro first learned about art, and later urged
him to collect the work of Aoki Shigeru. He went to study inParis in 1921, at age 39. Returning to Japan in 1924, he wentstraight to his home in Kurume, where his family awaited him.
In 1931, he moved to Yame and built an atelier there in which
he painted this work. The three horses face forward, to the side,and to the rear. The emerald green he used for the eyes of thehorse in the center is also the base color for the horses bodies
and legs, the sky, the ground, and the trees in the background,pulling the entire picture plane together.
A friend s commission for a horse painting was the trigger forhis many paintings of horses. Fascinated by their lively
appearance outdoors in the rich natural beauty of Kyushu, hewould go visit pastures and horse markets in search of horsesthat appealed to him.

⑥SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Noh Mask and Hand Drum Body,
1962
Oil on canvas
Sakamoto Hanjiro first saw Noh performed in 1913, when hewas thirty-one. He then started going with the poet Miki Rofu toperformances at the Noh Theater in the Peers Club in Kudan,
Tokyo. Later, when his wife, Kaoru, began taking part in the tea
ceremony, he went with her when she was collecting tea
utensils and purchased his first Noh mask, a koomote or mask
representing a young woman, at an antique dealer s.
Thereafter, seizing every opportunity, he acquired a variety ofmasks. His series of thirty some Noh mask paintings, which hebegan when he was sixty, is highly regarded. Just the Noh actor
positions his body perfectly on the stage, he has arranged thescript, mask, and drum exquisitely, in a careful composition
filled with peace and tranquility.

⑦
SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Dim Light, 1969
Sakamoto Hanjiro s themes included cows, horses, masks andother still life subject, and, in his final year, the moon. This
painting is his final work as well as the last of his moon series.
The moon, largely hidden by clouds, shed its faint light on thetrees, which take on a variety of colors. The trees are probably
wax trees, which had special meaning for Sakamoto.
Sakamoto s moon one would expect to be a full moon, buthere it is shrouded in clouds, as though a premonition of theending of his own life. Sakamoto s eyesight declined late in hislife, and he is said to have become nearly blind. This scene
presents what was in Sakamoto mind s eye, or in his heart.

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Exhibition overview
Exhibition title: Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection Special Section:
Aoki Shigeru, Sakamoto Hanjiro, Koga Harue, and Their Age: Artists fromKurume

Organizer：Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

Exhibition period: 3 November (Tuesday), 2020 ‒ 24 January (Sunday), 2021

Opening hours: 10:00 ‒ 18:00 (Evening hours, with the museum open until 20:00 on Fridays,
have been suspended until further notice. For the latest information, pleasecheck our website.)* Last admission 30 minutes before closing.

Closed: Mondays (opens on 23 November, 11 January), 13 November, 24 November,Year end and New Years (December 28 to January 4), January 12Venue: Artizon Museum 4F Gallery
1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031, Japan
Tel. Domestic: 050-5541-8600 International: 047-316-2772 (Hello Dial)
www.artizon.museum

Curator: Ito Eriko

Admission (tax included):◆ 3 November (Tuesday) ‒ 12 November (Thursday), 2020
Online reservation available beginning September 3 (Thursday)
During this period, only the 4F Gallery will be open; the 5F and 6F Galleries will be closed. Visitors mayview Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection, which includes this exhibition, in the 4FGallery.
Online ticket: 500 Yen
Same-day ticket (on sale at museum): 500 Yen
Student free entry (Advance online booking required.)* The admission fee applies only to Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection, which includes
this exhibition.

◆ 14 November (Saturday), 2020 ‒ 24 January (Sunday), 2021
Online reservation available beginning September 14 (Monday)
During this period the Rimpa and Impressionism: Arts Produced by Urban Cultures, East and Westexhibition will be held concurrently.
Online ticket: 1,700 Yen
Same-day ticket (on sale at museum): 2,000 Yen
Student free entry (Advance online booking required.)*This admission fee includes admission to all concurrent exhibitons.

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*Same-day tickets at ticket counter only available in case online reservation tickets have not been soldout.
*No reservation required for middle-school students and younger.
*Please bring your smartphone and earphones. The Artizon Museum app enables you to enjoy a guide tothe exhibition, free of charge, by voice actor Hosoya Yoshimasa.

Concurrent Exhibition
Rimpa and Impressionism: Arts Produced by Urban Cultures, East and West
November 14 (Saturday), 2020 ‒ January 24 (Sunday), 2021
Venue: 6,5F Galleries

Images for Press use
Apply for images from this exhibition for press use by clicking on the link
below, from our press release and PR data download system:

https://faith-pr.com/artizon/kurume2020* If including only one image, use the main visual ⑤ shown on page4.
* Include image credits as provided.
* Do not trim images or overlay them with text.

For inquiries about this press release:
Artizon Museum Kurume2020 Exhibition PR Office (within OHANA, Inc.)
Contacts: Takahashi, Hosokawa, Senō
Tel: 03-6869-7881 Fax: 03-6869-7801
E-mail: artizon-pr@ohanapr.co.jp
Risona Kudan Bldg, 5F, 1-5-6 Kudan Minami, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0074, JapanFor inquiries about the Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation:
Artizon Museum Public Relations GroupE-mail: publicity@artizon.jp
1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031, Japan

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Entry to the Artizon Museum uses the designated entry system by date and time.
Tickets must be purchased in advance from the museum website.

Ticket price (incl. tax)
◆ 3 November (Tuesday) – 12 November (Thursday), 2020
Online reservation available beginning September 3 (Thursday)
During this period, only the 4F Gallery will be open; the 5F and 6F Galleries will be closed.
Those presenting
University,
disabled
Children through junior highGeneralcollege, highpersons’
schoolschool students
handbook
Onlineticket

JPY 500

Same dayticket

JPY 500

Free entry—Advanced booking
requiredFree entry—Advanced booking
not required◆ 14 November (Saturday), 2020 – 24 January (Sunday), 2021
Online reservation available beginning September 14 (Monday)
During this period the Rimpa and Impressionism: Arts Produced by Urban Cultures, East and West exhibition
will be held concurrently.
Those presenting
University,
disabled
Children through junior highGeneralcollege, highpersons’
schoolschool students
handbook
OnlineticketJPY 1,700

Same dayticket

JPY 2,000

Free entry—Advanced booking
requiredFree entry—Advanced booking
not required*Online tickets must be purchased up to 10 minutes before the end of each time slot.
*Same day tickets on sale at museum are available only for time slots that have not reached full capacity.

Designated entry system by date and time

The designated entry system by date and time is designed so that visitors may enjoy a more comfortable viewing
experience. Please purchase your tickets for an entry time slot for the day you will visit, as shown below, andmake sure you enter the museum within that time slot.
① 10:00 ‒11:30 ②12:00 ‒13:30 ③14:00 ‒15:30 ④16:00 ‒17:30
You may enter at any time within the designated time slot.
• Once you enter the museum, your ticket is valid for the rest of the day; you may stay and enjoy the exhibition
until the museum closes.
• At the start of each entry time slot, the museum may be crowded. You may be asked to wait before entering
the museum. We recommend arriving for entry slightly after the start of your time slot.

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Online designated entry time ticket purchase•••

Tickets must be purchased from the museum website (www.artizon.museum) by clicking on the Ticketing link
and selecting the date and time slot when you wish to enter.
Tickets must be purchased up to 10 minutes before the end of each time slot.
Major credit cards are accepted for payment.

Delivery of online designated entry time ticket and entry to the museum

After you have purchased your ticket, an E-mail will be sent to your designated E-mail address.
Please access the QR code and download it onto your smartphone. You can also print out the QR code and bring
the paper with the print out with you when you visit the museum.

Same day ticket sales
Tickets are available only for time slots that have not reached full capacity; they can be purchased on 1F of themuseum.

Advanced booking•••Entry is free for university and college students and high school students, but advanced booking of the entry
time slot is required. Each student must present a student ID upon entrance to the museum.
Children through junior high school age are admitted for free. No advanced booking is required.
Entry is free for disabled visitors (plus one accompanying assistant), but advanced booking of the entry timeslot is required. Disabled visitors must present their disabled persons handbook upon entrance to themuseum.

Important information• Once your ticket purchase is confirmed, cancellation of the ticket is not allowed.
• Change of the time and date is available only once.
• There are no discounts for group tickets or for senior citizens.
• Entry is only allowed for the designated time slot.
• Resale of tickets for commercial purposes is not allowed.

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