Chapter One: Bijin-ga and the Four Seasons

　Depictions of women have a long history in Japanese art. From the Meiji era onwards, though, depictions of beautiful women emerged from private spaces to become the subject of appreciation in the public arena of the exhibition. Bijin-ga, or paintings of beautiful women, began to appear with increasing frequency, particularly after the first Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition (Bunten), held in 1907 (Meiji 40). This trend culminated in the introduction of a special room for the display of bijin-ga at the 9th Bunten exhibition, held in 1915 (Taisho 4). This marked the recognition of bijin-ga as a unique genre of Japanese painting. Many modern artists now focused on portraying feminine beauty in their own individual way.

　Japanese clothing and lifestyles are intimately connected to the four seasons. With all their familiarity and rich changeability, the four seasons also presented a perfect setting for the depiction of women in various situations.

　This chapter features depictions of beauties amid the four seasons, as filtered through the unique aesthetic sensibilities of each artist.

Watanabe Ikuharu　Beauties in Spring and Autumn　Taisho era

Hiresaki Eiho　Blossom Viewing in Spring and Autumn　1904 (Meiji 37)

Uemura Shoen　Viewing Autumn Leaves

Early Showa era

Chapter Two: The Lives and Lifestyles of Women

　Many painters chose to portray women in a manner not exclusively focused on idealized beauty. Japanese society developed in leaps and bounds from 1868’s Meiji Restoration onwards, but these events also created many poor people who were left behind by the rapid changes. Several artists turned their gaze to these social contradictions.

　Chigusa Soun tried to incorporate the naturalism of Western art into Japanese-style paintings. He also strove to depict ‘essence’ rather than ‘beauty.’ His paintings shine a sharp light on the lives of the working classes and people on the margins of society.

　Numerous other artists also tried to depict the day-to-day business and everyday lifestyles of real women. One representative example is provided by Mitsuyu Chihagi’s Knitting. Artists also took inspiration from their own wives and children as they tried to capture the feminine form, as epitomized by Hada Teruo’s two Mother and Child paintings.

　This chapter features paintings that portray women vividly in a manner that transcends surface beauty.

Chapter Three: Women’s Fashion – Addition and Subtraction

　Beautiful clothes and accessories are one charming aspect of bijin-ga paintings, with the genre representing contemporary fashion in all its multiplicity, from colorful kimonos and diverse hairstyles to make-up and Western-style clothing. Paintings were often criticized for focusing on this kind of external beauty, but just as ukiyo-e woodblock prints served as style guides in the Edo period, so many modern bijin-ga paintings were accepted by women as kind of fashion template.

　Women in the process of dressing up was a popular theme in ukiyo-e. This also became a subject of bijin-ga during the Taisho era, with several artists producing lustrous, atmospheric paintings of women getting ready, as epitomized by Okamoto Shinso’s Woman Having Hair Combed and Masuhara Soichi’s Summer Evening.

　If clothes and cosmetics are examples of addition, then nudes represent the art of subtraction. Kainosho Tadaoto studied nude models before trying his hand at nude paintings.

Miki Suizan　The Tea Ceremony　1936 (Showa 11)

Masuhara Soichi　Summer Evening　1926 (Taisho 15)

Chapter Four: Bijin-ga and the Depiction of Girls

　The Education System Order of 1872 (Meiji 5) gave a boost to mixed-sex education, with the proportion of Japanese girls enrolled in school topping 90% during the early 1900s. This trend led to the publication of several commercial magazines aimed at women. Pictures of young girls were now in demand as covers and illustrations for girls’ magazines like Shojokai and Shojosekai. This facilitated a growing interest in girls.

　Takehisa Yumeji found fame for his depictions of melancholic young ladies, with his art often featuring in girls’ magazines. Yumeji’s friend Hada Teruo sketched children at elementary schools or kindergartens, with the results of his studies apparent in Playing Games, a work depicting children at play.

　From the modern era onwards, many artists also painted portraits of maiko, or girls training to be geisha.

　This chapter introduces paintings of girls in all their rich diversity.

Okamoto Taiko and  Matsumura Baiso　Goldfish　Taisho era