坂本繁二郎

Sakamoto Hanjirō was born in today’s Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, in 1882. At the age of 10, while attending Kurume Higher Elementary School, he began studying Yōga (Western-style painting) with the local artist Mori Miyoshi (1872–1913). Students started off being taught drawing techniques and then practiced copying works and composing images from nature, using a British-made model book and other materials. The canvases they worked on as well as the oil paints and even the tubes containing them were all handmade. The techniques of perspective to which he was introduced impressed the youth with the rational and compelling approach of Western depictions as compared to the Nihonga methods he knew. The death of his father already meant Sakamoto had given up thoughts of pursuing his education beyond higher elementary, and he left school in 1895. Concentrating now on painting, he quickly revealed an artistic talent that had him being referred to as a “child prodigy” or “genius.” Early manifestations included the ink-wash painting “Lion” (whereabouts unknown), a work of about size 50, and various commissions such as the background paintings he made for a photo studio. In 1901, when Sakamoto was 19, Mori arranged for him to substitute as the art teacher at Kurume Higher Elementary School. During this year-long teaching stint, his students included Ishibashi Shōjirō (1889–1976), the future founder of Bridgestone Corporation. In May 1902, a former schoolmate and another of Mori’s pupils, Aoki Shigeru (1882–1911), briefly returned to Kurume from Tokyo for a military draft inspection. As a student at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō (Tokyo Fine Arts School, present-day Tokyo University of the Arts), Aoki had been exposed to the new art movements reaching Japan from Europe. Sakamoto, who tended to associate Yōga with old masterpieces, was amazed on seeing his friend’s latest work. Realizing how far Aoki had progressed, and afraid of being left behind as an artist, he accompanied him back to Tokyo that September. Aoki’s “Portrait of Sakamoto Hanjirō” (1902, private collection) was produced during the journey. The two of them were both just 20. At the Fudōsha art school in Tokyo to which he was introduced by Aoki, he made drawings of plaster figures and nude models for the first time, while struggling to turn the methods he had acquired during his Kurume days into something more authentic. In April 1904, he exhibited “Back Street” (1904, private collection) along with five watercolors at the Third Oil and Watercolor Exhibition of the Taiheiyō Gakai (Pacific Painting Association) and joined the institute established by the group later that year. In the summer, he went on a sketching trip with Aoki, Morita Tsunetomo (1881–1933), and Fukuda Tane (1885–1968) to Mera (part of today’s Tateyama City) in Tomisaki Village, Awa County, Chiba Prefecture. After witnessing a large catch being unloaded at the fishing port, he described the episode to Aoki, who was inspired to create “A Gift of the Sea” (1904, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo). Kanbara Ariake (1876–1952) admired the painting, and while all the circumstances are not known, Aoki and Sakamoto soon after created the cover design of Kanbara’s verse collection “Shunchōshū” (Tokyo: Hongōshoin, 1905) at the author’s request. In the summer of 1906, Sakamoto and Morita visited Izu Ōshima, an island off the coast of Mera, where Sakamoto painted “A Section of Ōshima Island” (1907, Fukuoka Art Museum). It was exhibited the following March at the Industrial Exposition organized by the Tokyo prefectural government. The work was well received and ranked top among of the third-prize winners: Sakamoto’s first formal recognition in the art world. The event, however, was riven by factional strife, and he and other members of the Pacific Painting Association decided to return their award certificates in solidarity with those who questioned the judging. That October, Sakamoto’s “Kitashigeyasu Village Scene” (1907, The Nishi-Nippon City Bank, Fukuoka) was selected for the first Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition (Bunten). His abilities were gradually gaining mainstream recognition. Through an introduction from the artist Yamamoto Kanae (1882–1946), he worked for three years from 1908 at the Tokyo Puck Company as a cartoonist for the comic magazine “Tokyo Puck.” In 1909, he entered the circle of the art and literary magazine “Hōsun.” After marrying in his hometown of Kurume the following year, he brought his wife and his mother back to Tokyo. He continued to paint, using his wife as the model for “Newspaper” and “Harimono” (Cloth Fulling) (both 1910, private collections), and produced prints of actors and actresses depicted on stage at the Imperial Theatre. After receiving an award at the fourth Bunten for “Harimono,” he resigned from the Tokyo Puck Company to devote himself to painting. After Aoki passed away in 1911, Sakamoto and friends honored him with “Aoki Shigeru Kun Isaku Tenrankai” (Posthumous Exhibition of Works by Aoki Shigeru) (Takenodai Exhibition Hall, Ueno, Tokyo) in March 1912, marking the anniversary of his death. “Aoki Shigeru Gashū” (Pictures by Aoki Shigeru) (Tokyo: Seikyōsha) was published the following year. Around this time, Sakamoto undertook a sketching trip to Onjuku, on the Bōsō Peninsula, and painstakingly completed “Faint Light” (1912, on deposit at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo). Exhibited at the sixth Bunten in 1912, it caught the eye of Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) who praised it highly in his review of the event, “Bunten to geijutsu [Bunten and art], XII ” published in the “Tokyo Asahi Shimbun” (October 28, 1912). Sakamoto treasured his clipping of the article for the rest of his life—recognition from a writer he greatly admired. In 1914, he participated in the first exhibition of the Nika Association, which was formed by artists dissatisfied with the Bunten, and until the group’s dissolution in 1944 (it was revived after war) used the annual event as his main forum. Around this time, he often featured cows in his paintings—a preoccupation summed up by “Cow” (1920, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo). On presenting this work, he declared a determination to devote his life to painting and stated his goal to be the expression in oils of “Japaneseness” and “the inner depth unique to Orientals.” (note 1). In 1921, he embarked on a three-year stay in Paris, starting off by studying for about six months with Charles Guérin (1875–1939). He searched for subjects in nature to sketch in the environs of Paris and in Brittany, studied the great painters in museums, and worked with models in the studio. He produced most of his few figure paintings at this time, including “Woman with a Hat” (1923, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo). Sakamoto’s style evolved from an Impressionist-like expression, which emphasized the brushstrokes, to a more decorative approach that featured light-toned color planes and simplified forms and sometimes omitted background details altogether. His stay in France offered him an opportunity to observe the differences between Japan and the West, both in terms of culture and natural phenomena, and reassure himself about the path he should take as an artist. On returning to Japan in 1924, he headed for Kurume, where his family was waiting for him. In 1931, he moved to Yame, near Kurume, set up a studio about a kilometer from his house, and poured himself into his creative activities. His name and works became better known after he met the art dealer Kuga Ichio (1911–1984) in 1939. Sakamoto developed a fascination for horses, which he saw living amid the richness of nature in Kyushu, and on visits to ranches and horse fairs, including at Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, he made sketches that were later turned into oil paintings in his studio. As well as equine subjects, he painted numerous still lifes incorporating ordinary fruit and vegetables, flower pots, boxes, and so forth. After the Second World War, he repeatedly painted Noh masks that he owned, hoping to one day capture in oils the feeling for the Noh stage as he had first experienced when accompanying the poet Miki Rofū (1889–1964) in the early Taisho period (1912–1926). Through the Noh theme, incorporating motifs of actors, staging, musicians, and other theatrical elements, Sakamoto imbued the still-life method with a distinctive “Japaneseness.” In 1964, at the age of 82, he began producing paintings of the moon. Fully round, haloed, or red––each image conveys a different mood. The artist continued to experiment, deepening his exploration of the theme, up until his death in 1969. The moon hidden behind clouds in his last work, “Dim Light” (1969, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo), casts a gentle glow. Sakamoto had a policy of not taking disciples. Nevertheless, during his years in Tokyo, he attracted admirers among young artists from his hometown, including Matsuda Teishō (1886–1961), Takashima Yajūrō (1890–1975), and Koga Harue (1895–1933), who gathered around him. After he returned from Europe and settled in Yame, many emerging painters sought his guidance whenever he participated in exhibitions as a juror or in workshops. The fact that he could remain in Kyushu and successfully pursue his art there was a great source of encouragement for young artists active in the region. (Ito Eriko / Translated by Ota So & Walter Hamilton) (Published online: 2024-03-08) Note 1. Sakamoto Hanjirō, “Watashi no e watashi no kokoro” (My Painting My Heart) (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbun Sha, 1969).