(c) 2018 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Shimomura Kanzan

Wakayama, 1873 - 1930, Yokohama

BiographyStudied initially with Kan? H?gai. Kanzan entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts when it opened in 1889. He painted in the Kan? style throughout his life.

Japanese painter. Coming from a long line of court tabor players, he was forced by the Meiji Restoration to break with tradition and take up painting. He studied under the last masters of the Kan? school, Kan? H?gai and Hashimoto Gah?, and in 1894 graduated from the newly established T?ky? Bijutsu Gakk? (Tokyo School of Art, now Tokyo, U. F.A. & Music), where he came to the notice of Tenshin Okakura. He was made an associate professor of the Tokyo School of Art immediately upon graduation. He was dispatched by the Japanese government to London (1903–5) to study European painting, especially watercolour, and met a number of leading British Japanophiles, among them Laurence Binyon and Arthur Morrison (1863–1945). He participated with Taikan Yokoyama in establishing the Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Art Institute), to revive traditional Japanese painting, under the direction of Tenshin. A master of traditional Japanese technique, Kanzan Shimomura successfully blended Japanese with European styles. His work served as a model for many Nihonga (Japanese-style; see Japan, §VI, 5(iii)) artists of his own generation and the next, e.g. Yukihiko Yasuda and Kokei Kobayashi. The elements in Kanzan Shimomura’s art derive from his extensive knowledge of Chinese painting, philosophy, history and religion as well as those of Japan and Europe. Among his most important works are Konoma no Aki (‘Autumn in wood’; 1907; Tokyo, N. Mus. Mod. A.) and Byakko (‘White fox’; 1914; Tokyo, N. Mus.), which are designated Important Cultural Properties (J?y? Bunkazai) and show a striking sense of ornamental dignity and delicacy of feeling.

Bibliography

H. Shimomura: Shimomura Kanzan, 2 vols (Tokyo, 1981)

Taikan and Kanzan (exh. cat. by M. Nagao and Y. Otsuka, Yokohama, Mus. A., 1990)

Shimomura Kanzan (exh. cat., ed. M. Hosono; Tokyo, Okakyu Grand Gallery, 1993)
Grove Art online, accessed 1/22/216

Person TypeIndividual

Last Updated8/7/24

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