Okakura Kakuzo

El arte en Japón, en origen, derivó del legado artístico chino. Con el tiempo, encontraron su propia identidad, desarrollando una producción japonesa per se, el yamato-e. Con la llegada de los portugueses a Kyūshū en el siglo XVI se produjo un proceso de evangelización y aculturación que impregnó todo el arte tradicional. Los artistas japoneses dejaron en desuso sus técnicas centenarias a favor de las novedades llegadas de Occidente. Esta situación generó una crispación entre un grupo de artistas que avalaban las virtudes de lo autóctono y promovían su recuperación. Esto dará lugar al nihonga o pintura propiamente japonesa. En el siglo XIX, cuando el País del sol naciente se abre al exterior y penetra en Europa, los occidentales se quedan fascinados con su cultura. Los mismos que habían destruido una tradición, imponiendo la suya, ahora se sienten atraídos por lo exótico, adoptando sus técnicas y formas en su pintura vanguardista.

1. For Asians the idea of ‘Asia’ was once a foreign one. It was not until the 17th century that the Chinese and the Japanese even began to use the word ‘Asia’, which originated in Assyria. The concept of ‘Asia’ does not, then, guarantee the socio-cultural unity of Asia. The Japanese only became conscious of ‘Asia’ as a socio-cultural entity in the latter half of the 19th century, that is, in the era in which Japan was compelled into modernization or westernization. Most Japanese looked upon the idea of ‘Asia’ as something that hindered Japan from westernization, something from which Japan should free herself (see Yukichi Fukuzawa, Argument for Leaving Asia, 1885). It is also in this era that ‘aesthetics’ as a modern western discipline was introduced into Asia (see Amane Nishi, New Encyclopedia, 1866/67).
2. Generally speaking, Japan belonged to the Sinitic civilization, based on Confucianism and Buddhism. Located on the periphery of the East Asian cultural area with China as its centre, Japan devoted herself to importing, appropriating and applying Chinese culture. Japanese culture remained, however, relatively independent; Japan was an isolated island nation, and the lack of affinity between the Chinese and Japanese languages led the Japanese to invent their own peculiar system of writing. It follows that while Japan took China as its cultural model, at the same time, it insisted on its own characteristics arising from its distance from the centre. Moreover, in Japan, as an importing country, elements belonging to different historical contexts at the cultural centre often coexisted. This is why Japan was described as a ‘museum of Asiatic civilization’ (see Kakuzo Okakura, The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan, published in English, 1903), and why Japanese culture was often characterized as ‘multilayered’ (see Tetsuro Watsuji, Multilayered Structure of Japanese Culture, 1934). The same characteristic of Japanese culture can also be seen in its process of modernization or westernization.
3. In modern Japanese aesthetics there were two antagonistic movements: one aimed at westernization by freeing itself from traditional Asian thought, and the other tried to oppose westernization by innovating traditional Asian thought. Kakuzo (Tenshin) Okakura (1862-1913) is a representative of the second movement. In his abovementioned book, which begins with the famous sentence ‘Asia is one’, Okakura contextualizes Japanese art within an Asia that has both unity and diversity. The reason why the advocates of westernization tended very often to convert to nationalism might have been that they lost sight of Asia. Okakura’s argument affords us an insight into our common topic: ‘Diversified Asian Aesthetics’.

This paper deals with the planning of an Asian religious conference to be held in Japan at the beginning of the twentieth century, seeking to bring to surface conflicts of religious nationalism in modernizing Asia. In 1902, two Japanese Buddhists, Okakura Kakuzō (1863-1913) and Oda Tokunō (1860-1911), went to India to meet the leader of modern Hinduism, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). There they developed plans to invite him and other religious leaders from India, China and Japan to Kyoto in the same year in order to hold a meeting they would call the “Prajna Paramita Conference.” Word of the conference spread in India and aroused general interest, recalling Vivekananda’s international success at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. Okakura and Oda conceived of the conference as an opportunity to enhance the significance of Mahayana Buddhism and demonstrate its affinities with Hinduism, the message they learned from Vivekananda. But the project, envisioned as a forerunner of religious exchange in modern Asia, failed to materialize.

My link to the European Revivals project began in 2009, when I was fortunate enough to present at the first conference – Myths, Legends and Dreams of a Nation.  That conference had an immediate effect on my own work, indeed I made reference to the Kalevala exhibition here at the Ateneum in my paper ‘Art as an Expression of Northernness’ published the next year. Thus the European Revivals project helped to focus my research networks and has continued to do so. What I want to do today is to reflect on that starting point in Helsinki in 2009 and think about future directions. I hope that what I will explore here at the Ateneum Museum in January 2020 will resonate with the experience of others involved in the project.

This article examines Okakura Kakuzo’s perception of the relationship between Asia and the West and Japan and the West in his The Book of Tea (茶の本). Okakura Kakuzo (岡倉覚三, 1862-1913) is one of the most important and international scholars in modern Japan and The Book of Tea is not only his masterpiece but also became a classic of modern English literature. In the first chapter of this book Okakura compares the cultures of Asia to that of the West and examines their relationships. According to Okakura, the East and the West should not stand in opposition, but cooperate in order to deal with their own shortcomings. In other word, escaping from situations such as where the existence of another continent is denied, all countries reach a stage where harmony is maintained through the necessity of mutual respect for the other. Such a kind of view is an almost multicultural one in our present age and it is quite characteristic of Okakura’s cross-cultural understanding. To clear this point we used the concept of “the ethnographic triad” by Kuwayama Takami (桑山敬己, 1955- ) and compared The book of Tea and The Bushidō, The Soul of Japan (武士道, 1899) written by Nitobe Inazō (新渡戸稲造, 1862-1933). As a result what was cleared is that Nitobe presents western countries as absolutely advanced in contrast with Japan which he sees as absolutely inferior in The Bushidō. On the other hand Okakura wanted to his concept to Westerners that Japanese culture is equal, not just compatible with Western civilisation. And it is also suggested that a view such as this one by Okakura is adequate for our present age, when antagonisms between the East and the West are covered up, and the gap between North and South or between South and South in economic strength and power continues to assume serious proportions.

In the wake of Japan’s progressive modernization efforts, didactic publications on painting
experienced a conceptual split: in pre-modern formats like gafu (painting manuals) or tehon (model
books), and the modern category of zuga kyōkasho (drawing books). While drawing books feature in
research on Japan’s modern educational system, Meiji-period descendants of pre-modern formats
have received little scholarly attention.

In my presentation, I examine how the author Matsuoka Masamori (dates unknown) made a painting
manual for children by heavily relying on earlier publications such as the Kaishien gaden (C. Jièzǐyuán
huàzhuàn; The Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual). The borrowing of visual and textual models
was an idiosyncratic characteristic of this publication genre. Publications on Chinese-style painting
were popular since the late seventeenth century. But such manuals witnessed their final peak in
popularity during the craze for Chinese culture that happened in Japan during the 1880s.

The Kanga dokugaku fu (Self-Study Book for Chinese Painting; 1882) was released in reaction to the
success of Chinese-style painting at the national expositions, held in Tokyo 1881 and 1882. The
publication consists of two crammed volumes intended for amateur study. Throughout the book
Matsuoka gives borrowed and seemingly genuine step-by-step examples, usually supplemented with
his own short explanations or captions to make the illustrations more accessible. He also omits
lengthy explanations. These factors suggest that Matsuoka may have engineered the book for the
painting education of children. I argue that the Kanga dokugaku fu presents a fusion of pre-modern
conventions in editing and the modern idea of painting manuals as educational tools for children.