Matazo Kayama: Seeking innovative styles

1. Gaze

Matazo Kayama

In this painting, Matazo Kayama depicts a young Himalayan—a breed of cat he began painting in the second half of the 1970s.

Its body is silvery in color, but a dark-brown, almost black fur covers its face and legs and tail; only its eyes shine a brilliant blue.

The kitten’s round body suggests it is only a few months old, an age when everything is interesting and worthy of closer attention, and when it learns to discern whether the creatures it encounters are friend or foe.

From its expression, the kitten in this painting appears to have encountered something unfamiliar—something at which it is gazing intently, but that has yet to elicit a sense of nervousness.

Kayama evidently sought to depict a cat that was not only adorable in appearance, but that belies an inner wildness.

2. Wind

Matazo Kayama

This work depicts a Himalayan cat, and shares a similar composition to “Oto (Sound),” which Matazo Kayama also painted in 1982.

From its title, “Kaze (Wind),” we can infer that a slight breeze has blown in the painting.

The cat’s ears and whiskers are alert, its front legs and tail tense; though hidden by its long, soft fur, tension is also palpable in the arch of its back.

Kayama began painting cats in the 1960s.

He initially portrayed short-haired Siamese cats with nervous dabs of paint, but in the second half of the 1970s he started depicting Himalayans, and his harsh style gradually softened.

Nevertheless, he continued to paint the eyes of his cats a piercing blue, appearing to eye up prey with unchanging acuity.

3. Sound

Matazo Kayama

This painting of a Himalayan cat shares a similar composition to “Gyo (Still),” which Matazo Kayama also painted in 1982.

Matazo Kayama initially painted short-haired Siamese cats, but switched his subject matter to long-haired Himalayans in the second half of the 1970s.

The body of the cat in this painting is a chestnut brown, but its face and legs and tail are a dark-brown, almost black color.

As if reacting to a sound, its ears are pricked, its tail part-raised, and its eyes straining to see.

By painting each hair individually, Kayama imbues his painting with a sense of realism; and although the body of the Himalayan appears chestnut-colored, a closer inspection reveals the use of gold pigment.

This is a simple composition in which a single cat is set against a dark background; however, the use of gold paint adds a decorative quality without being excessively gaudy.

4. Moonlight

Matazo Kayama

Matazo Kayama first began painting cherry trees in 1972.

He headed for Maruyama Park in Kyoto, he found a splendid weeping cherry tree, and painted the work entitled “Haru oboro (Spring mist).”

In it, a large moon hovers in a spring mist, and a cherry tree emerges majestically from the darkness.

In this painting, which was finished after 1980, a weeping cherry tree is illuminated softly by a pale moon.

For the background, he mixes gold paint and soot-ink; using stencils, he paints innumerable petals with white pigment made from clamshells; he then colors them with a wash of pink.

The moon glimmers faintly through the mist, and the weeping cherry tree stands tall with a quiet beauty.

5. Snowy mountains

Matazo Kayama

Early in his career, Matazo Kayama liked to paint snow scenes featuring rows of leaf-less trees.

These melancholy landscapes appear to project the inner turmoil of the artist, who was unsure of which artistic style to adopt.

Seeking beautiful landscapes, from the 1960s onward Kayama visited winter peaks in various regions and gathered materials; then in the 1980s, based on these materials, he began to create paintings of snow-covered mountains that were at once realistic and idealistic.

This painting depicts Japan’s Northern Alps, about which Kayama said: “Both the mornings and evenings are beautiful; above all, however, the morning after a night of raging snowstorms, when the pointed, silvery-white peaks gleam against a gloriously clear blue sky—then they are breathtakingly splendid.”

In this painting, too, Kayama captures the beauty of a silvery-white snowscape—with snow-laden trees and towering ridgelines silhouetted against a clear blue sky.

For Kayama, winter mountains possessed inexhaustible appeal; they were a key subject that he continued to paint for many years

6. The blue sun

Matazo Kayama

It is at first glance hard to discern the subject of this painting; upon closer inspection, we can see it is an emaciated and dehydrated crow that is clasping the leafless tree, gazing down.

The crow is blind and cries loudly, its beak wide open.

The brutally cold, snow-filled sky of northern Japan fills the background, the massive sun in the center of the painting spits out darkly burning flames, and an impressive bleakness pervades the painting.

What prompted Matazo Kayama to paint such a work?

After the Second World War, the idea gained traction that nihonga—the traditional form of Japanese painting—would die out; this was a time when painters were desperately searching for new forms of expression in nihonga.

Influenced by painters such as Bruegel, Kayama began painting birds and other animals set in vast, open tracts of nature, and fashioned a new, more emotional style of painting.

In the unpredictable aftermath of the war, Kayama faced financial hardship—and this painting appears to capture his worries and suffering.

7. Momentary

Yuki Ogura

Yuki Ogura devoted herself to Zen Buddhism at a young age, and the influence of Zen meditation is evident in her pictures. Indeed, she came to believe that only through meditation could one begin to understand beauty.

Japanese plum are often used to symbolize Zen: they must endure the long dark months of winter, before flowering at the start of spring; in this respect, they resemble Zen practitioners, who must endure long years of difficult training, before achieving enlightenment.

Ogura came to paint the many-colored Japanese plums that flowered in her garden as a form of reflection on her own life.

Ogura was inspired to create this work while observing the Japanese plums in her garden from her wheelchair. The chromatic red of the background shows the influence of Matisse, whom she admired greatly; this red also serves to throw into relief the white of the Japanese plums, and the blue and white ceramic vase.

The fallen petals at the bottom-left of the picture emphasize the transience of the Japanese plum’s beauty.

8. Poetry of green

Kaii Higashiyama

Kaii Higashiyama has depicted a lakeside forest in an extended landscape format.

Reflected on the mirror-like surface of the water, the forest cocoons the horse in green.

Higashiyama described a scene in which the trees were budding all at once, the green of the forest was “on parade,” and a single white horse walked quietly from the left to the right of the picture plane.

It appeared to be drawing attention to something.

This painting marked the first time in 10 years that Higashiyama had drawn a white horse—the animal had last appeared in his “Landscapes with White Horse” series.

For Higashiyama, the white horse symbolized the fantastical, and added dynamism to his pictures.

The painting formed the basis for a stage curtain for the Imperial Theater, Tokyo, and was intended to provide pleasure for the audience as they waited for their shows to begin.

Since the design had to be transferred onto cloth, its colors and gradations have been somewhat simplified.

It was used as a stage curtain until 2012.

9. Itsukushima Shrine in the moonlight

Ikuo Hirayama

A full moon illuminates the sky; the Purification Hall and Eastern Corridor of Marodo Shrine dominates the foreground, while the Otorii Gate rises above the water in the background.

Hanging lanterns glow yellow along the Eastern Corridor, their light reflected on gentle waves.

Ikuo Hirayama painted this night scene of Itsukushima Shrine, located in his home prefecture of Hiroshima, with great care.

Hirayama became famous in the 1980s, when his paintings related to the introduction of Buddhism in Japan coincided with a period of increased interest in the Silk Road.

Yet in 1988, he started painting primeval Japanese landscapes, such as Sanuki, Kibiji, and Yamatoji.

He also created a large, four-panel painting of Itsukushima Shrine, which he displayed at the 1993 Inten Exhibition.

This painting also takes Itsukushima Shrine as its subject.

In depicting the shrine as it stands against the moonlit sky, Hirayama has used vast quantities of ultramarine blue, made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli—and a gentle and spiritual world of blue appears to open up before us.

10. Women peddler from Shirakawa

Ryohei Koiso

“Shirakawa girls” used in former times to walk around Kyoto selling flowers.

Wearing dark blue, short-sleeved kimonos and aprons, white undergarments, and white cloths on their heads and collars, they were instantly recognizable.

The girl in this painting neither carries flowers on her head, nor walks the streets of Kyoto.

She is simply dressed in the garb of a Shirakawa girl, seated in Ryohei Koiso’s studio, quietly looking toward the viewer.

Koiso had a particularly strong interest in his models’ attire; he not only purchased clothing that interested him, he even designed his own clothing and had it order-made.

The clothing worn by the model in this painting was also acquired in this manner.

Koiso was always meticulous in his preparations, so it is surprising to see the background of this painting populated by a mess of instruments and tools—which, presumably, he used as props.

This disordered background brings the presence of the girl—and the contrasting blues, whites, and reds of her clothing—into stark relief.

11. Women peddler from Ohara

Ryohei Koiso

“Ohara girls” used in former times to walk around Kyoto selling firewood.

Dressed in black, short-sleeved kimonos with red obi belts, in white undergarments, white coverings on the backs of their hands, and white cloths on their heads, they were instantly recognizable.

For this painting, Ryohei Koiso dressed a studio model in the garb of an Ohara girl.

The composition is unusual—he has filled a single painting with the same girl in different aspects, as if she were rotating: facing to the left, facing the viewer directly, facing to the right—and also standing in the background.

Koiso started painting such compositions in the second half of the 1950s, when he began exploring Cubist designs.

This is an extremely experimental work, evident not only in his use of bold and contrasting lines, but also in his calculated color placement.

12. In the studio

Ryohei Koiso

This is one of Ryohei Koiso’s dancing girl series of paintings: a young woman, dressed in leotard and ballet shoes, leans against a studio chair.

The phrase “dancing girl” will, for many museum-goers, call to mind the works of the French Impressionist Edgar Degas.

But while the Frenchman was keen to depict girls dancing or moving on stage or in the studio, Koiso preferred to paint them quietly in his studio.

He wished to capture the girls after they had left the stage, and had once more returned to everyday life.

Around the time he created this work, Koiso not only painted in a classical manner, but was also trying his hand at more experimental techniques.

This entailed taking particular care over the stylistic elements of the painting, such as the use of numerous lines to depict the chairs and other objects.

Nevertheless, Koiso has adopted the classical style of chiaroscuro in the face of the dancing girl.

13. Dicentra Spectabilis

Emile Gallé

Thought to have been created by Emile Gallé in his later years, this rare work is themed on the Asian bleeding heart flower—from its overall shape to the bold relief decoration on the front and the patterns engraved on the back.

Distinctive for its heart-shaped flowers, the Asian bleeding heart was often used by Emile Gallé in his designs, and the elaborateness of this vase’s design powerfully suggests just how taken he was by the flower’s unique ecology and lovely form.

Gallé died of leukemia on September 23, 1904, at the age of 58.

The following week, L’Illustration carried an obituary of Gallé together with a photograph of one of his Asian bleeding heart-themed vases.

The Shimose family called this work “The heart-shaped tear,” after the German name for the flower, and displayed it with great care in the middle of a large, altar-like cabinet made by Gallé.

14. Vase, “Rose of France”

Emile Gallé

Stalks covered with poisonous-looking dark-red buds and thorns cling to a warm-pink vase.

Known as “rosa gallica,” or the “Gallic rose,” in the Lorraine region of France, the Gallic rose only grows in the mountains on the outskirts of Metz, and it was used by Emile Gallé as a symbol of his love for his homeland.

After the Franco-Prussian War, the Lorraine region was ceded to Germany.

The Gallic rose that continued to grow there came to embody Gallé’s desire for France to recapture this land.

In his later years, Gallé created a large, footed cup decorated with a Gallic rose for Léon Simon, when he retired as chairman of the Central Horticultural Society of Nancy.

This was in homage to Simon who, after the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, had left his hometown of Metz, chosen to become a French citizen, and devoted himself to the research of roses.

This vase shares similarities of design with that cup, and its small, fleshy rose buds seem to encapsulate Gallé’s emotions.

15. Vase （wallflower design）

Emile Gallé

Émile Gallé created this vase in his later years using glass marquetry techniques.

It is decorated with wallflowers, which commonly grow in the gaps between stones and rocks; indeed, its name comes from the fact that they can often been seen climbing old castle walls.

The flowers, leaves, stalks, and even the roots of the wallflower are depicted in relief.

Gallé imbued the flowers with a luster by sandwiching metal leaf between layers of glass—they have a sense of energy, and exude a powerful vitality.

The unique shape of the vase is one of its distinguishing features: its lip is shaped like a crown, while its belly is covered in thick glass.

Although the exact reason for its shape is not known, some believe that the vase resembles flower pistils or seeds, others that the lip is modeled after the closed petals of a flower.

Gallé created many variations on this work, some inscribed with phrases or poems.

The numerous versions indicate that the wallflower was, for Gallé, a major source of inspiration.

16. Vase (inky cap mushroom design)

Emile Gallé

The common inky cap is a mushroom that grows on dead wood from spring to autumn.

They have long stems and grey caps but, when they mature, their caps disintegrate in the course of a single night and turn into black slime—hence their Japanese name means “one-night mushrooms.”

Émile Gallé sought inspiration in nature for his works, and he appears to have sensed the fragility of existence in the common inky cap.

In his later years, Gallé produced multiple versions of a common inky cap lamp—indeed, it is a work of his that is particularly well known.

Of the six versions that still exist, two are in the collection of Japanese galleries.

This vase is also inspired by the common inky cap.

Gallé used various techniques—such as sandwiching decorative elements between layers of glass—to create a wondrous natural scene on the surface of the vase.

In addition to spider webs and withered leaves—motifs that are associated with death—he also depicts five common inky cap mushroom.

The caps of these mushrooms are in varying states of opening, as if representing different stages of their development, and Gallé has succeeded in capturing the fragility of their existence.