黒田辰秋

Born in 1904 (Meiji 37) in Gion Kiyoi-chō, Kyoto. His father, Kuroda Kamekichi, was born into a samurai class family in Daishōji, Kaga city and adopted as a child by the Kuroda family of Yamanaka-chō (present-day Kaga city). Kamekichi learned lacquerware techniques at Yamanaka lacquerware in that area and then became a lacquer worker in Kyoto. In 1919, after graduating from Kyoto City Second Higher Elementary School and upon the urging of his father and brother, Tatsuaki became a resident disciple of the “maki-e” artist Segawa Shōryū. His health failed and he returned home after two months. Around this time he began to have doubts about the lacquer industry’s division of labor system. Tatsuaki thought, “if decorative arts are meant to be an art form, then I must essentially learn the entire process.” This led him to start independent study, beginning with the woodworking involved in preparing a ground for lacquer (“Kuroda Tatsuaki Nenpu,” “Kuroda Tatsuaki: Hito to Sakuhin”, Shinshindō Shuppan, 1972, p. 253). Sometime by the age of 17, Tatsuaki met the potter Kusube Yaichi. When he read the articles that Tomimoto Kenkichi wrote and published in magazines, he learned that there were also true artists working in ceramics, and this is said to have strengthened his beliefs. In the autumn of 1924 (Taishō 13), he went to a lecture by Kawai Kanjirō at the Osaka Art Club Co. Ltd., and on his way home he met Kawai thanks to an introduction from Kusube. Later he visited Kawai’s home where he was introduced to Yanagi Sōetsu and Aota Gorō, then teaching and working as a student dormitory resident director at Doshisha Middle School, and his friendship with these men deepened. In March 1927 (Shōwa 2), he rented an empty house owned by a shrine family in Kamigamo Minamiōjimachi, Kyoto, and sometime that summer Kuroda (woodwork), Aota (textiles), Aota’s younger brother Shichirō (metalwork), and Suzuki Minoru (assistant) moved into the house, setting up the Kamigamo Mingei Kyōdan (Kamigamo Mingei Guild), a communal living arrangement. The first of their main projects was the creation of works for the Mingeikan, a special pavilion at the “Ontairei Kinen Kokusan Shinkō Tokyo Hakurankai” (Domestic Industry Promotion Tokyo Exposition in Commemoration of the Enthronement Ceremony) held in Ueno Park in March 1928 (Shōwa 3). The Mingeikan included a single-story wooden home that provided an actual example of a new type of middle-class family home life, a model room that Yanagi fitted out with folk crafts from throughout Japan and works by his artist acquaintances. Kuroda was in charge of the wooden furniture, producing such works as the “Dining Table and Chairs, clear lacquered, zelkova wood” (1928, Asahi Group Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art, Kyoto), featuring openwork carved Igeta crests, the Mingeikan’s signature crest, and “Dressing Table, Vermillion Lacquer” (1928, The Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Tokyo). Later Yamamoto Tamesaburō purchased this Mingeikan pavilion and re-built it as the Mikunisō in Osaka. Upon that transfer of the structure Kuroda made “Child’s Desk and Chair” (ca. 1930, Asahi Group Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art, Kyoto). There were also numerous visitors to the Kamigamo Mingei Kyōdan, including Shiga Naoya, Aoyama Jirō, and Kobayashi Hideo. In 1929 (Shōwa 4), Iwai Taketoshi, of the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun and one of Kawai’s supporters, suggested holding the Mingei Kyōdan Sakuhinten display as a distribution venue for their works. At the time, their advisor Yanagi was working with Tomimoto, Kawai, and Hamada Shōji on their April 1926 “Prospectus for the Establishment of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum”, and February 1927 “A Proposition Concerning Craft Guilds”, both discussing the need for a so-called craft guild. Even though the Kamigamo Mingei Kyōdan was short-lived, disbanding in 1929 (Shōwa 4), it was an important empirical experiment during the nascence of the later folk craft movement. After the Kamigamo Mingei Kyōdan disbanded, in 1930 (Shōwa 5), Yanagi recommended Kuroda for unjudged entry to the Crafts Division of the Kokugakai Exhibitions. A commission from Tsuzuki Hitoshi of Shinshindō led to his creation of a “Table and Benches, Clear Lacquered, Japanese Oak” (ca. 1030, Shinshindō-Kyoto University North Gate, Kyoto) for the Hyakumanben Bakery Hall. Imanishi Zenzō commissioned “Large Clear Lacquered Zelkova Wood Display Cabinets” (1931, Kagizen Yoshifusa, Kyoto) for the Kagizen Yoshifusa sweets shop in Ishidanshita, Gion, Kyoto and a “Raden Inlay Bowls for Kuzukiri Noodles Container for Kuzukiri with Mother-of-Pearl Inlay” (1932, Kagizen Yoshifusa, Kyoto). He thus worked on these and other shop fittings, producing major early period works for his supporters in Kyoto. At the end of August 1933 (Shōwa 8), thanks to recommendations from Kawai and Iwai, Kuroda set off to advise on woodwork production at the Hokkaido Kōgyō Shikenjō (present-day Hokkaido Research Organization). He then had to return to Kyoto in December of the same year when his father was close to death. In 1935 (Shōwa 10) Gotō Shintarō’s mediation led to Kuroda holding a solo exhibition, “Kuroda Tatsuaki mokushitsu kougeihin kojinten” (Kuroda Tatsuaki Solo Exhibition of Wood and Lacquer Decorative Arts) (Nakamuraya, Osaka). Shiga Naoya recommended the exhibition, “At last he can discern the self that he should pursue as an artist.” (‘Kuroda Tatsuaki Nenpu,’ “Kuroda Tatsuaki: Hito to Sakuhin,” Shinshindō Shuppan, 1972, p. 255). It was around this period that he began full use of mother-of-pearl made from Mexican-sourced abalone shells, which the woodblock print artist Munakata Shikō dubbed “yōgai,” literally shining shells. The Sino-Japanese War broke out and it became difficult to buy materials, but Kuroda continued to produce works based on commissions from individuals such as the Ōhara family of Kurashiki, Okayama prefecture. In 1944, he was sent to the outskirts of Jilin, China to advise on the production of ceramics for use by the Japanese residents there. En route he was able to visit the Yi Royal Family Museum and other such places in Seoul, Korea. Influence from Korean wooden lacquer works has been noted in Kuroda’s early works, such as his “Three-Shelved Cabinet, Clear Lacquered, Zelkova Wood” (1927, Kawai Kanjiro’s House, Kyoto) copied from Korean woodwork owned by Yanagi, but this 1944 journey through Korea was his first visit to the country. After the war ended in 1945 (Shōwa 20), he assembled the demobilized young lacquer artists, and formed the Sōjinsha lacquer study group with Ban’ura Shōgo, Takenaka Bifū, and others. In 1954 (Shōwa 29) at the urging of Ishiguro Munemaro, he helped found the Kinki regional branch of the Japan Kōgei Association. The following year he began to enter works in the “Nihon Dentō Kōgeiten” (Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition), and in 1956 (Shōwa 31) his “Cabinet, Clear Lacquer on Zelkova Wood” (1956, whereabouts unknown) was awarded the Asahi Shimbun Company Prize at the Third Nihon Dentō Kōgeiten. That year he was made a regular member of Nihon Kōgeikai, and later served on its examination committee and head of the Wood and Bamboo division. In 1964 (Shōwa 39), the film director Kurosawa Akira commissioned interior sets, including the “Clear Lacquered Japanese Oak Chair with Carved Floral Design” (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi). In 1966 (Shōwa 41) the Imperial Household Agency commissioned works for the new Shōwa Palace project, namely, decorative chair panels and four sets of knobs for the front and back surfaces of the Take no Ma and Ume no Ma doors in the Seiden (1966), four sets of door decorations and large display shelves for use in the Ume no Ma (1967), and thirty small red chestnut chairs and ten tables for the Chidori no Ma and the Chigusa no Ma (1968). In 1970 (Shōwa 45), he was named the first Holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property: Woodwork in the field of wood crafts. Kuroda produced works displaying the wide array of expression possible in lacquered wooden works, ranging from his clear lacquered work which enhanced the beauty of the wood grain to carved floral designs, works that explored shapes via angled designs, and those which effectively used mother-of-pearl to enhance surface design. In 1976 (Shōwa 51) a retrospective exhibition “Kuroda Tatsuaki: Hito to Sakuhin” (Kuroda Tatsuaki: His Life and Work) (Umeda Hankyu Department Store, Osaka) was held. In tandem with that exhibition, Shinshindō (Kyoto) published a compilation of his works with the same title. He was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon (1971), named Kyoto City Person of Cultural Merit (1976), and in 1978, awarded The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette. On June 4, 1982, at the age of 77 he died of acute pneumonia at his home in Hino, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto. (Miyagawa Tomomi / Translated by Martha J. McClintock) (Published online: 2024-03-06)