関根正二

Sekine Shōji (Note 1) was born in 1899 in what was then Ōmura Village, Nishi-Shirakawa District (today’s Shirakawa City), Fukushima Prefecture. His father earned a living as a wood-shingle roofer and by farming. Due to a string of severe crop failures in the Tōhoku region from 1903 on, the family moved to Tokyo, although eight-year-old Shōji initially remained behind by himself for some unknown reason. The boy rejoined his family about a year later, when they were living in Fukagawa (in today’s Kōtō Ward), a working-class area of the capital. Living in the same neighborhood was Itō Hajime, soon to achieve success as a Nihonga (Japanese-style) painter under the name Itō Shinsui. He first met Sekine, who was a year younger, in 1910. Itō had had to quit ordinary elementary school after just three years to help support his family. He found work as a letterpress printer at the Fukagawa factory of the Tokyo Insatsu (Tokyo Printing) company, before transferring to its design department in midtown Nihonbashi Kabutochō. Sekine, on the other hand, completed ordinary elementary school and then attended night school for two years. At this point, he abandoned his studies and joined the firm’s design department on Itō’s recommendation. The Nihonga painter Yūki Somei was an advisor there at the time, and it is said that many of the employees were aspiring artists. Among them was a certain Kobayashi Atsushi [?] 小林専, a Yōga (Western-style) painter with a passion for literature. Through him, Sekine was introduced to the works of Oscar Wilde and Friedrich Nietzsche; the inclusion of a passage from Wilde’s “De Profundis” in his diary entry of November 27, 1915 suggests he was greatly impressed. His own history of reported eccentricities perhaps had more than a little to do with his admiration for Wilde, as well as reflecting the atmosphere of a period when anarchism was on the rise in Japan. In 1915, at the age of 16, Sekine left the printing company and embarked on a penniless journey with a Japanese painter named Nomura. Parting from his companion, he wandered off alone toward the Kōshin’etsu region; the resulting meeting with the painter Kōno Michisei in Nagano proved a major turning point. Michisei’s father Jirō, who ran a photo studio in Nagano City, had studied under Takahashi Yuichi, a pioneering Yōga painter. Father and son were both also devout followers of the Orthodox Church of Japan. Hearing Michisei’s faith stories, examining his art books on Michelangelo, Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, and other Old Masters, and seeing the young man’s oil paintings and drawings made a strong impression on Sekine. On returning from the trip, he wrote a note to himself: “God has opened my eyes, recognized my power. Strive for expression.” (10 am, July 4, 1915).(Note 2) What did “God” mean for him? An omnipotent creator beyond the Christian faith? An absolute being within himself? Michisei’s strong influence persisted in Sekine’s fine-lined, detailed depictions, even as the artist began to forge a painting style of his own. He made his debut in the art world with “Shi o Omou Hi” 死を思う日 (Meandering Thoughts of Death) (1915, on deposit at the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art), which was selected for the Second Nika Exhibition. Executed with intense brushwork, the painting’s depiction of sky and trees has an unsettling effect. That year, while involved with the magazine “Honoo [Flame]” being put together by followers of Maeda Yūgure, he met another poet, Muraoka Kurokage, and the pair soon became close friends. Early in 1916, he began attending the Taiheiyō Gakai Kenkyūjo (Pacific Painting Association Institute) and exhibited “Shūsaku” 習作 (Study) (whereabouts unknown), “Onna” 女 (Woman) (1916, private collection), and “Pen Sobyō” ペン素描 (Pen Drawing) (whereabouts unknown) at the Third Nika Exhibition that year. Around this time, he was rapidly expanding his circle of friends that now included the painter Uenoyama Kiyotsugu and his wife the writer Shiraki Shizu (met through Itō Shinsui), the writers Kume Masao, Satō Haruo, and Kon Tōkō, and the painter Tōgō Seiji. On May 29 and 30, 1918, he took part in the fifth presentation of the Kokuminza drama troupe (at the Yurakuza Theater, Tokyo) by painting the picture used as a stage decoration for Ikuta Chōkō’s play “Enkō [Halo]” and appearing on stage as an extra, along with Kon Tōkō, Tōgō Seiji, and others, in “Jizōkyō Yurai [Origin of the Jizō Cult],” written and directed by Kume Masao. While working hard on his art, Sekine repeatedly lost his heart to female acquaintances. If a yearning for the “ideal woman” was the driving force behind his creativity, the constant heartbreaks he suffered took a psychological toll. Seeking to put the latest romantic disappointment behind him, he returned to the Tōhoku region late in 1917 and remained there until early the following year. While spending about a month at the family home of his friend Muraoka Kurokage in Yamagata, he painted “Muraoka Min no Shōzō” 村岡みんの肖像 (Portrait of Min Muraoka) (1917, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama). The subject was Muraoka’s mother. After moving on to the Shirakawa area of Fukushima, where he was born, he produced “Sanada Kichinosuke Fusai Zō” 真田吉之助夫妻像 (Portrait of Sanada Kichinosuke and His Wife) (1918, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art). The vivid realism of these two paintings sets them apart from his other works: unique portraits that combine a compelling intensity with a Cézanne-like use of color. In the spring of 1918, while in hospital undergoing surgery for a chronic sinus problem, he met and fell in love with the female painter Taguchi Masaki, only to lose out again, this time to Tōgō Seiji. His slow recuperation from the operation and the pain of another failed romance precipitated a mental breakdown, during which he began to see visions. That summer, according to a press report, he was detained by the police after going berserk at Matsumotorō restaurant in Hibiya Park. Rumors spread that “Sekine has gone mad.” Nevertheless, shortly afterward, he achieved a notable success at the Fifth Nika Exhibition, being awarded the Chogyū Prize for three works: “Shinkō no Kanashimi” 信仰の悲しみ (Sorrow of Faith) (1918, Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, Important Cultural Property [ICP]), “Shitei” 姉弟 (Infant and His Sister) (1918, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art), and “Jigazō” 自画像 (Self-Portrait) (1918, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art). In reference to “Shinkō no Kanashimi,” with its depiction of five women, the artist wrote in the magazine “Mizue” (issue 164): “I am definitely not mad. The fact is I am subject to certain visions or apparitions. In the morning and in the evening, when I am beset by loneliness, I feel a desire to worship something. At such moments, women of the sort appear in front of me in groups of three or five.” Major works followed one after another. In “Kami no Inori” 神の祈り (Prayer of Goddess) (c. 1918, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art), the touches of vermilion color—referred to admiringly as “Sekine’s vermillion”—combine beautifully with the dominant deep blue-green to create a unique fantasy world. Next came “Kodomo” 子供 (Boy) (1919, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo) and “Sansei” 三星 (Three Stars) (1919, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). At the end of 1918, as symptoms of tuberculosis were also starting to appear, he fell victim to the Spanish influenza pandemic. His health deteriorated rapidly. Possibly realizing that the end was near, about a month before his death, he is said to have gathered up many of his drawings and burned them behind his house. On completing his last painting, “Nagusameraretsutsu Nayamu” 慰められつゝ悩む (Distressed while Consoled) (whereabouts unknown), he did not even have the strength to sign it. His short life of 20 years and two months came to an end on June 16, 1919. An artist for less than five of those years, living back and forth between the real and the imaginary while beset by the constant torment of intense loneliness, his short but brilliant career produced an immortal legacy on canvas. During the late Meiji and early Taisho periods, when various artists were becoming conscious of “individual expression,” a unique and rich sensibility suddenly bloomed and just as suddenly faded, leaving behind many unsolved mysteries. (Nagato Saki / Translated by Ota So & Walter Hamilton) (Published online: 2025-02-25) Notes 1. Although he was given the name “Masaji” (正二), and used it in social situations, when signing his works in the Latin alphabet, he generally wrote “Shoji Sekine” or “S. Sekine,” adopting an alternative reading of the characters of his given name. As a result, the artist’s name is customarily given as “Shōji.” Nevertheless, he did sign some of his late paintings “Masaji,” including the major work “Kodomo.” It has been suggested that he made the change in particular cases possibly with some purpose in mind. 2. The words appear in a memorandum. See Sekine Shōji, “Sekine Shōji, Ikō, Tsuisō [Posthumous Manuscripts and Reminiscences]” (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1980).