古賀春江

Born in Kurume-shi, Fukuoka-ken in 1895. Real name Yoshio. His father was the head priest of Zenpukuji, a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo sect, and Koga himself entered the Buddhist priesthood in 1915 and assumed the new name Ryōshō. At the same time, he also began using the art name Harue. Fond of drawing from his childhood, after entering Fukuoka Prefectural Meizen Ordinary Middle School (today’s Fukuoka Prefectural Meizen High School) in Kurume, Koga began learning the rudiments of painting from a local artist named Matsuda Minoru (Teishō). In 1912, he left junior high school and went to Tokyo, where he entered Taiheiyō Gakai Kenkyūjo (Pacific Painting Association Institute). The following year, in 1913, he also entered Nihon Suisaigakai Kenkyūjo (Japan Watercolor Association Institute). When his father died in 1916, he became an auditor at Shūkyō Daigaku (the present Taishō University) in order to succeed his father while also continuing his artistic career. However, he withdrew from the university for health reasons in 1918. Thereafter, he seems to have resolved to concentrate on making a living as an artist. From when Koga moved to Tokyo until c. 1919, he worked mainly on watercolors. In 1917, “Chicken Coop” (whereabouts unknown) was accepted for the first time at the 9th Nika Art Exhibition. In 1922, inspired by the experience of his wife, Yoshie, having had a stillbirth of a baby girl, he painted “Burial” (Jōdo Shū Chion-in Temple, Kyoto), which won the Nika Prize. That year, together with Kanbara Tai, Nakagawa Kigen, Yabe Tomoe and other Nika Association artists pursuing a new trend, Koga formed a new avant-garde group named Action and became acknowledged as an artist playing a part in the avant-garde trends of the time known generically as new art movements of the Taishō era. Representative oil paintings by Koga dating from this period including “Nirvana” (1924, whereabouts unknown), “Buddhist Service” (1923, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo) and “Birth” (1924, ditto) strongly reflect the stylistic influence of Western avant-garde art such as Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism. On the other hand, the themes and motifs evoking a unique sense of indigenousness or religion demonstrate distinctive qualities characteristic of Koga. From c. 1926, Koga’s converted to a style referred to as “Klee-like” or “children’s picture-like.” Representative examples dating from this period such as his watercolors “Amusement Park” and “Beautiful Fair” (both 1926, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo) and his oil paintings “The Moon and Flowers” (1926, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) and “Window” (1927, Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art) do indeed show the influence of Paul Klee. However, rather than the structuralism evident in the pictures by Klee, Koga’s works feature carefree lyricism and dreaminess. In “Sea” (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) and “Birdcage” (Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo), which were submitted to the 16th Nika Art Exhibition in 1929, Koga restricted the brushwork and matière he had employed until then and switched to a new style in which photograph-like realistic motifs were montaged. All at once, paintings showing a new trend were presented at the Nika Art Exhibition held that year. For example, there were “Déclaration, Surrealistic Stroll” (Sompo Museum of Art, Tokyo) by Tōgō Seiji, “Rien” (whereabouts unknown) by Abe Kongō, and “Kūchū no kanjō to butsuri [Emotions and Physics in Midair]” (whereabouts unknown) by Nakagawa Kigen. Such works, including those by Koga, were reported sensationally as “Surrealism” or, based on the art critic Itagaki Takao‘s remarks, “kikai shugi (mechanism/machinism).” From the following year onward, Koga thoroughly pursued this new trend of painterly representation until his final years, and concentratedly presented important works such as “Make-up outside the Window” (1930, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama), “Simple Sad Story” (1930, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo), and “Kanjō no jōmyaku” (Sentimental Vein) (1931, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo). During this period, he also attempted cross-genre work by, for example, designing the stage sets for “Ruruko,” the first performance staged by Kōmoriza (Tsukiji Shō-Gekijō [Tsukiji Little Theatre], June 12–15, 1930), together with Tōgō and Abe. However, from 1932 onward, he became prone to illness. In the summer of 1933, he was diagnosed with progressive paralysis. Although he continued contributing to the development of avant-garde art by discussing the establishment of the Avan-Garudo Yōga Kenkyūjo (Avant-Garde Art Institute) together with avant-garde Nika artists including Tōgō, Abe, and Minegishi Giichi, “Circus” (1933, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama) became his last work, and he died on September 10 that year. “Sea” and other paintings Koga produced in his final years are regarded as the initial phase of the reception of Surrealism in Japan, but it would not suffice to merely fit them into that framework. Koga’s inclination toward rationalistic tendencies in modern art such as the Bauhaus and Purism has also been pointed out. Particularly important is the point that it has become clear through research made from the 1990s onward that the cutting-edge motifs of the time such as modern girls, factories, submarines, and mechanical structures were appropriated, more or less as is without modification, from visual images distributed by the mass media of the time including science, slick, and amusement magazines. Images of movie actresses are employed in “Sea,” “Birdcage,” and “Sentimental Vein.” Some of Koga’s thoughts on his work during this period can be found in “Chōgenjitsu shugi shikan [Personal Views on Surrealism],” an article he contributed to the magazine “Atorie” (vol. 7, no. 1, January 1930). Well versed in literature too, Koga composed poems from his early years to his final days. From 1926 onward, he also contributed his poems to magazines and other media. “Koga Harue gashū” (Daiichi Shobō, 1931), the sole collection of his painterly works published during his lifetime, contains illustrations of his works and explanatory poems of the works, forming a singular world in which literature and painting intersect. Such cross-media attempts could also be relevant to the methodology of Cinepoem/Cinepoetry, which Takenaka Kyūshichi, an avant-garde poet whom Koga knew, and Action member Kanbara Tai also attempted. In his final years, Koga also associated closely with Kawabata Yasunari, a standard-bearer for “Shinkankakuha (neo-sensationalist)” literature. After Koga’s death, Kawabata referred to Koga in “Matsugo no me [Eyes in Their Last Extremity]” (“Bungei” vol. 1, no. 2, December 1933) and other articles, which was to influence the direction of Koga’s assessment. Kawabata is also known for having endeavored to prevent Koga’s works getting dispersed by, for example, establishing “Koga Harue Dōkōkai” together with Kitahara Yoshio, Takata Rikizō, Takenaka Kyūshichi, etc. and donating the works he left to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. (Taniguchi Eri / Translated by Ogawa Kikuko) (Published online: 2024-05-21)