高橋由一

Yuichi was born on the fifth day of the second month of Bunsei 11 (Gregorian calendar March 20, 1828) as the legitimate child of Takahashi Genjūrō, a samurai retainer of the Sano clan, Shimotsuke domain in the clan’s Edo Ōtemae residence. His childhood name was Inosuke 猪之助, later changed to Inosuke 佁之介. After the Meiji Restoration he changed his name to Yuichi. His parents divorced when he was still a child and he was then fostered by his grandfather Gengorō, a vassal of the Hotta family who ran the Takahashi family’s swordsmanship skills business. At the age of 9 he served as a close attendant to the clan lord Hotta Masahira and began studying painting methods under Kanō Tōtei around the age of 12 or 13. He later studied painting under Kanō Tangyokusai as he primarily strove to learn his family’s martial arts business. However, his physical weakness meant that the clan permitted him to give up trying to be a martial arts specialist and instead concentrate on his painting. He entered the studio of Yoshizawa Setsuan, but work in that busy studio hindered his studies. During the Kaei era (1848-1854) he borrowed European lithographs from a friend, was amazed at their veracity, and this made him decide to concentrate on “Yōga” (Western painting). In 1862 he entered the painting studies division of the shogunate’s Western books research institute, Yōsho Shirabesho Gagakukyoku洋書調所画学局, and there was trained by Kawakami Tōgai. In 1864 he became a painting studies division “shutsuyakukai” (assistant teacher) in the renamed shogunal Western studies research institute, Kaiseijo Gagakukyoku 開成所画学局, but he was not satisfied with his research there. In 1866 he entered the studio of Charles Wirgman in Yokoyama to study oil painting techniques. His “Self-portrait” (ca. 1866, Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Ibaraki) thought to date from this period is the first self-portrait painted by a Japanese in full oil painting techniques. In 1872 he entered “Himaraya no zu” (Picture of the Himalayas), “Sekai dai ni no daibakufu” (World’s Second Biggest Waterfall), and “Bokugyūzu” (Cattle Grazing) (all whereabouts unknown) in Japan’s first exposition held at the Yushima Seidō in Tokyo. That same year he painted “Beauty (Courtesan)” (Important Cultural Property (ICP), 1872, Tokyo University of the Arts) as his work as a Yōga painter increased dramatically. For the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair he produced “Fugaku daizu” (Large Mt. Fuji) (whereabouts unknown), “Former Edo Castle” (1872, Tokyo National Museum) and “Landscape of Kōnodai” (1872, Tokyo National Museum). Around this time he moved to Nihonbashi Hamachō, Tokyo, and in June 1873, opened his private painting academy Tenkaisha (name changed to Tenkaigakusha in 1879). He held essentially monthly oil painting exhibitions at his painting academy, presenting numerous new works in each display. His students there included Harada Naojirō, Andō Chūtarō, and his son Genkichi. In 1876 he began study under Antonio Fontanesi, a painter who came to Japan to teach at the Kōbu Bijutsu Gakkō (Art School of the Imperial College of Engineering). His oeuvre can be largely divided into two periods; with the first period focused on his Tenkaigakusha school as Edo underwent its tumultuous rebirth as Tokyo. During that period he devoted his energy to the spread of oil painting in Japan by creating landscape pictures of the “famous scenery” sites depicted by Utagawa Hiroshige, still-lifes of everyday items and foods, and commissioned portraits. While his major work of this period, “Salmon” (ICP, ca. 1877, Tokyo University of the Arts) reflects his able use of oil painting techniques, it also contains distinctly creative elements, such as its depiction of a subject not found in European painting and use of a paper, not canvas, support arranged in a long vertical composition suited to the hanging salmon subject. The latter half of his career covers the period from 1880 through his final years, when his sphere of activity spread beyond Tokyo to Kotohira in Sanuki and the Tōhoku region. He lived in Kotohira from December 1880 through January 1881 in order to produce several works as offerings to Kotohira-gū. In July 1881 he received a commission from Yamagata prefectural governor Mishima Michitsune, so he departed for the Tōhoku region. He produced a number of oil paintings in Yamagata of the scenery along the prefecture’s new roads. His “Kurikoyama Tunnel” (1881, The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan) depicts the tunnel whose inauguration featured an appearance by Emperor Meiji, then on tour in the area. This landmark work can be seen as symbolizing the modernization of Tōhoku. Thanks to his work in Yamagata, he was then commissioned again in 1884 when Mishima was made the governor of Tochigi prefecture. He produced a series of lithographs based on sketches of the new roads in Tochigi, Fukushima, and Yamagata for that project. In 1892, as Yuichi aged and was in ill-health, his son Genkichi edited his memoirs, and self-published them as “Takahashi Yuichi rireki” (Curriculum Vitae of Takahashi Yuichi). The following year, 1893, his former Tenkaigakusha 天絵学舎 students organized the “Yōga enkaku tenrankai” 洋画沿革展覧会 (History of Yōga Exhibition), which was held on the grounds of the Kingentei, Shintomichō, Kyōbashi-ku (present-day Shintomi, Chūō-ku, Tokyo). Along with portraits of Shiba Kōkan, Kawakami Tōgai, and Fontanesi, this gathering of related works provided an overview of his own oeuvre within the context of modern Japanese Yōga history. On July 6, 1894 Yuichi died at his home in Nippori-mura, Kitatoshima-gun, Tokyo. Needless to say, Yuichi was more than just the first Japanese painter to produce oil paintings in the modern era. His oeuvre was produced specifically for the dissemination of Yōga in Japan. He opened a painting academy, fostered later generations of painters, and held regularly scheduled exhibitions to display his own paintings and those by his students. He published an art magazine “Gayūsekichin” (Hakujusha), and while not finally realized, he designed the architecture for the Rasen-Tengakaku, a museum dedicated to Yōga. As part of his desire to show the appeal of oil paintings for practical purposes, he responded to the demand for portraits and commemorative paintings. Yuichi himself kept an archive of his own activities, and that archive is available for study today as the “Takahashi Yuichi yuga shiryō” 高橋由一油画史料 (Documents Related to Takahashi Yuichi Paintings) (total five volumes, Tokyo University of the Arts). (Furuta Ryo / Translated by Martha McClintock) (Published online: 2024-05-15)