高村光雲

Born on the eighteenth day of the second month of Kaei 5 (Gregorian calendar March 8, 1851) in Kitakiyoshima-chō, Asakusa, Tokyo, the second son of Nakajima Kanematsu 兼松 and Masu 増. His childhood name was Mitsuzō. His father sold small handicrafts from a cart and had other businesses. Kōun later helped his father by making and selling “kumade” rakes for the annual Torinoichi festivals held in Asakusa. From a young age he loved cutting wood and sculpting. In 1863 (Bunkyū 3), when he was twelve years old in the Japanese “kazoedoshi” age system, it was decided that he would be apprenticed to a carpenter. However, instead, through the introduction of a barber in the neighborhood, he was apprenticed to the Edo-style Buddhist sculptor Takamura Tōun. He was given the name Kōkichi while with Tōun. He lived in Tōun’s home for eleven years, including his year of official service, as he continued his studies. His teacher granted him the “gō” (art name) Kōun in 1874 (Meiji 7). To avoid conscription, he was adopted by Tōun’s older sister’s family and assumed the Takamura family name. “White-robed Avalokitesvara (Kannon)” (whereabouts unknown) — which Kōun entered in place of an entry by Tōun in the First Domestic Industrial Exposition in 1877 (Meiji 10) — was awarded a top prize (Ryūmon Prize). This revealed his real prowess to a wide audience. The following year his teacher asked him to produce sculptures for foreign customers in his stead, and later, to quote Kōun himself, “I rid myself of a ‘Buddhist sculpture-like’ style and broadened my expression towards a more ‘realistic’ approach.” (Takamura Kōun, “Kōun Kaikodan (Kōun Reminisces),” Tokyo: Banrikaku Shobō, 1929). Hearing that they were teaching Western-style sculpture in the Sculpture Department of the Kōbu Bijutsu Gakkō (Art School of the Imperial College of Engineering) which opened in Tokyo in 1876, it seems he was interested in their use of plaster casting. Around 1880 he participated in the casting of sculptures from wax original models at the foundry of the father and son Ōshima Kōjirō 高次郎 and Katsujirō 勝次郎 (Joun), thus continuing his interest in and use of new expressive techniques. He became a leading sculptor in Tokyo in both name and deed. He participated in the Domestic Industrial Expositions and won prizes in the Kanko Bijutsukai (Kanko Art Exhibition), begun by the Ryūchikai (Ryūchi Society) to further efforts to preserve traditional Japanese arts. His prize-winning continued in its successor the Nihon Bijutsu Kyōkai (The Japan Art Association) exhibitions and the sculpture competitions held by the Tokyo Chōkōkai (Tokyo Chōkō Society) established in 1887. Ishikawa Kōmei had invited him to help found those competitions. This period’s major works are the four wood sculptures “Japanese Spaniels” (1887, whereabouts unknown), which served as the models for bronze sculptures to adorn the new imperial palace, and “Bantams” (1889, Tsurui Museum of Art and The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan ), which were displayed in a Nihon Bijutsu Kyōkai exhibition after they were not completed in time for entry in the Exposition Universelle de Paris 1889. Kōun discusses the difficulties involved in finding well-formed models for both works in his “Kōun Kaikodan,” indicating the efforts he took to create realistic depictions of his subjects. In 1889 (Meiji 22), Okakura Kakuzō (Tenshin) asked Kōun to join the Sculpture Department at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō (Tokyo Fine Arts School, present-day Tokyo University of the Arts), and he was appointed professor in that department in 1892. That same year, the Imperial Household Ministry named him an Imperial Court Artist. In addition to training students at Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō, he was also involved in the production of numerous wood models for privately commissioned bronzes. Kōun was the lead artist, working in tandem with other Tokyo Fine Arts School teachers, on the production of well-known bronzes extant today in famous Tokyo sites, including “Statue of Kusunoki Masashige” (1893 model completed, 1900 installed) in the Kōkyo Gaien National Garden and “Statue of Saigō Takamori” (1897 model completed, 1898 installed) in Ueno Park. During that period he exhibited his major work “Aged Monkey” (Tokyo National Museum, designated Important Cultural Property in 1999) in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He borrowed a monkey to study as part of the production process of that work and went himself into the mountains in search of good Japanese horse chestnut (Aesculus turbinata) wood for use in its creation. He is said to have carved an “old wild monkey” because he had started out to carve a white monkey, thinking that the horse chestnut wood surface would be white , but it turned out to be a different color than he expected (op. cit.). He enlarged the form of a small monkey into full-sized adult human scale with a greatly coiled upper body, his left paw grasping the hawk tail feather he had captured as he stares off into the distance towards his escaped prey. This compellingly realistic and dynamic composition can be considered a sculptural work that represents the Meiji period. Later he created superb figural sculptures, including 50-60 centimeter tall works that realistically depict their subjects, such as two works in The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shōzōkan, “Sanrei Kago” (1899) entered in the Exposition Universelle de Paris 1900 and “Deer” (1920), as well as “Ōkura Tsuruhiko and his Wife” (1927, Ōkura Museum of Art, Tokyo) and “Saeki Jōin” (1930, Hōryūji, Nara). However, it is said that the models for these last two portraits were created by his first son Takamura Kōtarō. (note 1) According to recent surveys and research, the plaster models for the Taishō period and later works are extant. Thus his use of the plaster model-based wood sculpture technique has been confirmed. This system — whereby he taught at an art school while also producing works in his own studio with the help of numerous disciples — was a characteristic aspect of modern Japanese sculpture which saw the introduction of new expressive methods and production processes added to the apprenticeship system carried on from the Edo period. Kōun, who was originally involved in Buddhist sculpture production, felt that creating Buddhist sculptures led to his best work. While he entered works in exhibitions and produced portrait sculptures and bronze monuments for outdoor installation, he continued to carve Buddhist sculptures throughout his life. Major examples of such work include “Avalokitesvara (Kannon)” (1892, wood model in Tokyo University of the Arts), which Chion’in, Kyoto commissioned Tokyo Fine Arts School to produce; joint works with his disciple Yonehara Unkai including a pair of “Niō” figures, “Standing Sanpō Kōjin,” and “Standing Sanmen Daikokuten” (1919) for the Niōmon, Zenkōji, Nagano, and “Bhaisajyaguru (Yakushi Nyorai),” the principal object of worship in the Kondō, Kongōbuji, Mt. Kōya (1934). He also created numerous small Buddhist sculptures that are fascinating examples of the work of a modern-era Buddhist sculptor. We must not consider Kōun solely as a modern sculptor, but rather as an artist who also had this Buddhist sculptor aspect, and through such considerations, discern the special quality of his works within the history of modern Japanese sculpture. In 1922 (Taishō 11), his first son Kōtarō and novelist Tamura Shōgyo began interviewing Kōun, and the following year they published the memoirs as “Kōun ō Mukashibanashi (Old Kōun’s Tales of Long Ago as Recorded by Tamura Shōgyo)” as a series of articles in the magazine “Chūō Kōron,” April, July and September 1923 issues. In 1929, these texts were published in book form as “Kōun Kaikodan.” This single-volume book was a compilation of the magazine series’s “Tales of Long Ago” oral history and Kōun’s own texts, “Sōkahen” 想華篇. Of those texts, the “Tales of Long Ago” provide a vivid account of Japan’s sculpture world from the late Edo through the Meiji and Taishō periods, the lives of the people involved in that world, and the social conditions of the time. The texts were then re-issued in the postwar era under the titles “Mokuchō 70-nen (Seventy Years of Woodcarving)” (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1967), “Takamura Kōun Kaikodan (Takamura Kōun Reminisces)” (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1970), and “Bakumatsu Ishin Kaikodan (Reminiscing about the Late Edo Period and Meiji Restoration)” (Iwanami Bunko, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1995). On the other hand, “Sōkahen” contains Kōun’s own text that had been published in the magazine series and records of his lectures. The contents include discussions of Takahashi Hōun and his elder brother Takahashi Hōzan of the Edo Buddhist sculptor lineage he had inherited; the Izumo cabinetmaker Kobayashi Jodei; the “Five Hundred Arhats (Gohyaku Rakan)” sculptures at Rakanji, Honjo which were his models during his study years, and his own experiences of the Asakusa area spectacles and performances, particularly those of the “living doll” artist Matsumoto Kisaburō. These texts fully convey the depth and variety of the three-dimensional art form realm that continued on and expanded from the Edo period as it formed the background for Kōun’s own sculptural expression. In addition to his production of works as a sculptor, Kōun also trained numerous young sculptors both at Tokyo Fine Arts School and in his own studio, and for many years was the elder in Japan’s sculpture circles. Upon the 1907 (Meiji 40) formation of the Bunten (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition), he served as a judging committee member of the Third Division (Sculpture) for twelve exhibitions, from the First through the Twelfth held in 1918 (Taishō 7), acting as chairman of the judging committee for the Seventh through Ninth exhibitions. The following year, in 1919, he was elected a member of the Teikoku Bijutsuin (Imperial Fine Arts Academy). In 1926 he voluntarily relinquished his position of professor at Tokyo Fine Arts School and was named professor emeritus that year. The following year he resigned his membership in the Teikoku Bijutsuin but was reappointed in 1930. On October 10, 1934 (Shōwa 9), he died in Tokyo. By that time his first son Kōtarō had already fought off the sheer scale of his father’s presence and become a leading modern Japanese sculptor and poet. Kōun’s third son Toyochika was active as a metal artist. In turn his son, the photographer Tadashi, photographed Kōun’s works throughout his life, striving to discover their whereabouts and honor them. (Tanaka Shūji / Translated by Martha J. McClintock) (Published online: 2024-03-06)