From My Memories

by NISHIMURA Toshiro

This essay consists of twelve stories. Toshiro wrote them in the 1990s, which was the last ten years of his life. For further understanding, we put NOTES about the personal names to some stories.

■Encounter with a world-renowned photographer

　A few years ago, on a winter morning in Oshino Village, Yamanashi Prefecture, I was sketching Mt. Fuji when a voice behind me said, "There's air in your painting. When I turned around, it was an old man with his cheeks covered and with an old-fashioned camera around his neck. That person was Mr. Koyo OKADA*, a world-renowned photographer of Mt. Fuji. It's interesting how a photographer can immediately refer to the presence of air in a painting. A professional photographer I met at Lake Kawaguchi also said that the most difficult part of shooting Fuji is the expression of air. The reason why the photographer, who was thought to be unable to express anything without a camera, is so serious about the unseen air. It is because the air makes Fuji look beautiful. They must have learned the depths of nature as a result of their long practice.

* OKADA Koyo 岡田紅陽(1895—1972) a Japanese photographer

■A Dialogue with a Zen priest

It was a long ago when I started painting Mt. Fuji. I went to Narusawa Village, Yamanashi Prefecture, where I think *KATSUSHIKA Hokusai's Red Fuji was painted. When I went up, to paint Mt. Fuji, to the top of a small hill in the precincts of a temple of the Rinzai Zen sect, there was an old priest, who seemed to be the head priest, and he asked me what I was doing. He said, "Fuji is alive and moving, so it's not something that can be painted easily.” Rude priest, I thought. But after I painted Fuji many times for a long time, I came to understand the words of the priest. There is no reason for Fuji itself to move, but it is often covered by clouds quickly, and the it is seen clearly, but it is quite different from the previous one, or its shape has changed completely. Mt. Fuji is the least variable, and stable in July and August, but there is no snow on the summit, so it's not attractive.

* KATSUSHIKA Hokusai 葛飾北斎(1760?—1849) a Japanese ukiyoe painter

■A Race Horse Trainer's Question

　One day, an award-winning work titled "Man on Horse" (oil painting) from an authoritative (?) major exhibition appeared in a horse race magazine. The painting was a new kind of figurative painting and did not depict the reins of a horse. The trainer said, "It's funny that there are no reins.” I said, "New paintings, even figurative ones, sometimes don't like to be descriptive. Picasso's Blue-Era work The Youth and the White Horse features a naked boy pulling a white horse, but it doesn't depict reins.” The trainer said, "I see. So that's what it's like in the new paintings. But the horse is going in a different direction in this rider's hand. It's a new painting, so I wonder if it's okay.” Even if Picasso's painting doesn't show reins, the horse's eyes, ears, and the swell of its nose suggest reins. Even if you don't like descriptive things, you don't want the truth to be false.

■The advice of Tokusaburo KOBAYASHI*

　When I was still young, I went to Futomi in Boso Peninsula, Chiba to paint pictures. As soon as I arrived at an inn, I took my painting box and went out to sketch. There was an old painter staying in the inn, who painted for only about 30 minutes every evening, and slept during the day. I thought he was a retired amateur painter, but later I learned that the man was Tokusaburo KOBAYASHI, an elder of the Shun’yokai Art Association, so I went to him and greeted. Mr. Kobayashi said, "The material is not interesting in daytime scenery. Even if you draw a picture in such a situation, you can't make a good one in the end. I have to draw when I think the material is beautiful. Sleeping patiently during the day is one of the disciplines." He advised me. Even today, when I am an old man, I still go out with my picture box as soon as I arrive at an inn.

* KOBAYASHI Tokusaburo 小林徳三郎(1884—1949) a Japanese painter (oil painting)

■*Eisaku WADA's Attitude to Sketching

　One day I was sketching Mt. Fuji at Oishi near Lake Kawaguchi, when an old lady who was watching behind me talked to me. She said that when she was young, when Mr. Wada painted "View of Mt. Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi" (a good painting), she accompanied him every day, and that he chose a day with the same weather and painted the picture for about an hour at the same time, and it took him a long time to finish it. I was amazed to hear about it, because it depicts the nature of the work so beautifully. It's hard to decide which one is the better. Some painters paint fast and others slow. Mr. Wada probably painted Mt. Fuji with the slow transition of time etched in his mind.

* WADA Eisaku 和田英作(1874—1959) a Japanese painter (oil painting)

■The story of an amateur beauty and a tavern beauty

I have a friend who is always angry because he isn’t popular with women though he spends much money in a tavern. One night, he borrowed his friend's wife, a young, immortal beauty, and went out to the tavern, hoping to show the women there how he was popular with beauties. However, under the dubious artificial light of the tavern, the amateur beauty did not flourish at all, while the blue-shaded tavern beauties with ink in their eyes were all lively and lively. In other words, he made the wrong choice of location. Even a good painting sketched in ambient light will not flourish if it is lined up in a public exhibition where works are shouting to stand out. However, if it's a good painting, people will see it, and if it's hung in a quiet private room, it's sure to shine. On the other hand, those that only aim at the venue effect look like monsters in such places.

■The eyes of a painter and the eyes of a cat

　At a public exhibition, when one of the members was there on duty, an old man who looked like a country man, pointed to a landscape painting that was hanging there (it was the work of a middle-ranking and popular painter, with water in the near view, houses in the middle and mountains in the far view) and said “This painting looks more and more flat to me when I look at it. The viewer is a human being, and because of wisdom at work, they will decide that the water is in the foreground and the mountain is in the distance and look at it, but a cat would not see it that way.” What a cynical old man he is!

■The story of the horse and the peony

　I've been painting horses for a long time for a living, so I think I know a lot about horses. People who work in Japanese-style or oil painting often come to the stables to ask the staff to sketch a horse for the autumn exhibition because they want to exhibit a large work on a horse. But most of them come in two or three times with only a pencil and a sketchbook, and in the autumn they come out with a large work. When the legs move, it's natural that the muscles in the horse move. There's no way that two or three sketches can tell the subtle muscle and bone structure movements. Painters often say that art is not a description of a thing, but it has to be factual though it’s not descriptive. They should study something they don't know, especially for the first time slowly for two or three years before doing it. Even if Degas's horse is simplified, and he does not draw eyeballs of a horse, there are no lies about the movement of the physique. He is the master of dessain.

　A friend of mine, Yamanaka, is a peony flower maker. His peonies are said to have been painted by UMEHARA Ryuzaburo* and KOBAYASHI Kokei*. He said that, mainly in the case of Japanese paintings, he sometimes saw paintings with different types of flowers and different types of leaves, and when he cautioned the artist about that, the artist again said, "Art is not an explanation of things.” Yamanaka says, "For the sake of the painting effect, it's acceptable to be different, I understand,” but when it comes to peonies, he can't seem to get past the lies, and he said, "If an elegant beauty had a hairy man's torso, it would be very creepy. Peony doesn't complain, so it's fine." He seemed to be unconvinced.

* UMEHARA Ryuzaburo 梅原龍三郎(1888—1986) a Japanese painter (oil painting)

* KOBAYASHI Kokei 小林古径(1883—1957) a Japanese painter (Japanese-style painting)

■About the Japanese painter I met at Mt. Kashimayarigatake

　A few years ago, at the foot of Mt. Kashimayarigatake in the Northern Alps of Japan, there was a solidly built man with climbing gear, who was probably a little older than I was. I found something in his gear that looked like a painting box, so I recognized him as an artist and called him. He is from the Kansai region and is a pupil of Chikkyo ONO* and has also received advice from oil painter, Wasaku KOBAYASHI*. Mr. Kobayashi said to him, "You're an ordinary person and you don't have the talent to make a picture like Mr. Ono, so it's no good imitating him. Walk where other painters don't know and find motifs that move the painter.” He said that he had been walking around Japan for 20 years looking for a good place to paint. I was so happy that there were other people like me that I lost track of time as we talked.

* ONO Chikkyo 小野竹喬(1889—1979) a Japanese painter (Japanese-style painting)

* KOBAYASHI Wasaku 小林和作(1888—1974) a Japanese painter (oil painting)

■A session of sketching Mt. Fuji

　In February of one year, dozens of members from many oil painting societies attended a session of sketching Mt. Fuji in Oshino Village, Yamanashi Prefecture. I also joined it. Our goal was to paint Mt. Fuji at sunrise. The night before was clear and there was not a single cloud, so everyone went to bed with great enthusiasm, hoping for tomorrow morning. To sketch Mt. Fuji at sunrise in winter, you need to start around seven o'clock in the morning, so I got up in the dark and set up a picture frame in search of the right place and waited for sunrise. Red Fuji was stunning. I painted with all my heart. When I was finished by nine o'clock, I looked around the area, but all I found were photographers taking pictures of Fuji, not a single professional painter. I returned to my hotel, and was surprised to find that the painters were sketching from the windows of the hotel, and some of them were even doing it in their nightgowns. Since this hotel has a roof in front of it, the foot of Fuji is not visible. So they only drew the top of the mountain. All photographers, even amateurs, set up a tripod and waited for the appearance of Red Fuji while shivering in the snow, but professional painters are in such a state. I see, it's no ordinary thing to stand there for more than three hours in a snowstorm of 14 or 15 degrees below zero, but it's not often that Red Fuji is able to make such a splendid appearance, and you need to have the guts to respond to that. These days, young landscape painters hate the hardships of sketching outdoors because they have many obstacles, and they use photographs and other materials to make their paintings in their studios. These days, it is rare to see professional painters sketching outdoors. I’m afraid this will be the end of sketch painting.

■The insight of Hakutei Ishii*

　About thirty years ago, Hakutei Ishii said, “The number of painters will increase and the exhibitions will become more and more prosperous, but the paintings will become worse and worse.” It was a warning to painters. He was concerned about the evils of the way public exhibitions were held at the time, but today's figurative painting has become more craft-like and has been designed. If Hakutei ISHII was still alive and saw the current paintings, he would be saddened.

* ISHII Hakutei 石井柏亭(1882—1958) a Japanese painter (oil painting)

■My thoughts on painting education at art schools

　When a friend of mine was sketching outside in Nice, France, an elderly foreign artist was painting the same area next to him in oil. At first, he didn't pay much attention to the artist, but as the days went by, he became more and more astonished by the artist's mastery of realism. The style of painting was calm and robust, in the Constable style of the pre-impressionist English school. No mediocre painter could have imitated it. The painter revealed that he was a professor at the Belgian National University of Art and Design. He said, “I've never been to Japan, so I can't say it outright, but I've heard that even in national art schools, art education teaches theories of individuality, style, and ism, and that teaching of practical skills is devalued.” That's right. We are told to strike the iron while it is hot, but it is only when you are young and soft-headed that you should work hard on your realism. If you are young, you may paint an interesting picture and become popular, but if you have not mastered a solid technique, you will lose motivation and regret it when you are old.

　When I was painting Mt. Asama in autumn in Karuizawa, a young man was also painting an oil painting in front of me. I thought it was a bit meddlesome, but I asked him if he was wrong about the valeur* in his painting. He says, "I know the meaning of valeur, but I don't learn it as a practical skill.” He was about to graduate from an oil painting department in a private art college. He asked me many questions about the practical skills of the valeur, but since it is not something that can be taught overnight, I pointed out only a few points that we should pay attention to while sketching. Valeur is the backbone of realistic painting as well as sketching, but I was dumbfounded to no end by the way art education is conducted today, wondering why students who are about to graduate do not know the basic technique of valeur. However, when I think about it, today's teachers are not able to teach students valeur with confidence because they were educated after the war and have not been able to teach the real techniques of it. It makes no sense for art students to pay a high monthly fee and only get a diploma without learning important techniques in art schools.

*valeur – a French word that means “colour valence.” NISHIMURA Toshiro used this French word very often when he talked about the techniques of painting.

My Notes on Painting --especially about Valeur---

by NISHIMURA Toshiro

(1)

In the Meiji Era*, the School of Arts** opened in Tokyo, and painters including Antonio Fontanesi were invited as teachers from Italy. Later his Japanese students became ‘the masters of Western oil painting in the Meiji era.’

　More than ten years ago from now, an exhibition of Fontanesi's work was held in Tokyo, and the director of an Italian art museum came to Japan with Fontanesi’s works. There were more than 100 pieces of artworks in the exhibition. The works of the Meiji masters who were students at the time were also displayed there. A few days later, a comment by the director of the museum was quoted in a newspaper. At the end of it, the director said, “It's a shame that the students of Japan (the Meiji masters) didn't understand the most important technique of their teacher, Fontanesi." What he said was exactly the same as what I was thinking.

The technique is a Valeur, the most difficult of all the techniques of realistic painting. As far as I can see, this technique does not exist in Japanese Western-style paintings (realistic paintings) even today, it seems to me. However, if one does not master this technique of Valeur, one cannot see the sunlight or the presence of air in the picture. It is also impossible to achieve a perspective in the picture.

　When Pizarro, a pioneer of the Impressionists, asked Corot what the most important technique in painting was, Corot explained Valeur as follows. “For example, if you invite a lot of guests to your party, the only thing that will make them happy is not a drink. It's not even the food, but the heartfelt entertainment of the host. Valeur is like that hospitality.” I would like to explain Valeur in terms of cormorant fishing.*** That is, cormorants are light and dark in color, strong and weak, and all that, and if there were no cormorant fishermen, cormorants would be at will. It is the cormorant fisherman that brings them together in a good way, even though they are disjointed. In other words, the Valeur is the cormorant fisherman's role in the painting.

　Mt. Fuji is a mountain of red rocks, but the farther you look away from it, the bluer you see it. The sky appears to be blue, but if you could go close to it, it would be colorless. In other words, the layer of air makes things appear the bluer. It is a principle of nature that the color of objects in the picture changes according to distance even if they are the same thing. We must take that into account.

　Then what is the difference between tone (ton) and valeur? Tone is fine if the painting is in black and white (e.g., Japanese sumi-e), but if the painting is in oil (oil painting or cray-pas drawing) Valeur is the most important.

*the Meiji Era --- 明治時代(1868—1912) the reign of Meiji Emperor

**the School of Arts ---工部美術学校(Kobu Bijutsu Gakko), established by 工部省the Ministry of Engineering (at that time) in 1887, and closed in 1883. 東京美術学校 Tokyo School of Fine Arts (1887—1952) is a different school, which became the Department of Fine Arts at 東京藝術大学Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

*** cormorant fishing 鵜飼(Ukai)--- It used to be common as a method of fishing in Japan. It has a long tradition. Nagara-gawa River in Gifu Prefecture is famous for cormorant fishing.

(2)

　When the Exposition was held in Osaka in 1970, an art museum was built in the site. Many of the art works on display were oil paintings by famous Japanese artists. Among them I found a wonderful painting. It was not a very large painting, with the mountains and water in the foreground and the church and houses in the middle field. I was impressed by the painting. The artist was Constable, an English painter. I had known his name for a long time, but this was the first time I had seen his painting. I was thrilled that this was the path my painting would take. At that time, I decided on the path I should take. In later years, I saw many of Turner and Constable's paintings at the Tate Gallery on the banks of the Thames in London. Each landscape painting was full of air. Both of the two painters have mastered the Valeur perfectly.

(3)

　I have several times met Mr. Kunzo MINAMI*(a pupil of **KURODA Seiki) at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music). One day I asked him how he was able to capture and express Valeur in his paintings. He was very honest and told me that it was difficult for him to do that. I continued to ask him what I should do. Then he replied: "If you work hard and paint hundreds or thousands of pictures, nature will tell you what to do. He was right. When I look at Mr. Minami's paintings of his late years, I see that the tone is there, but no valeur. I realized how difficult it is to create a painting with perfect valeur.

*MINAMI Kunzo 南 薫造(1883—1950) --- a Japanese painter (oil painting)

**KURODA Seiki 黒田清輝(1866—1924) --- a Japanese painter (oil painting)

(4)

　Recently, a large exhibition of female nudes was held in Shanghai. In order to paint nudes, you need to have the texture and weight of the body. It is necessary to make full use of a perfect valeur. The purpose of this nude exhibition is to find a true leader of oil painting. Japan should train young and splendid leaders of oil painting to be as good as China.

(5)

　In the Taisho* and early Showa** eras, new paintings such as Matisse and others were introduced to Japan, and it was said that the future of Western painting in Japan also had to become new. And the realistic paintings of the past were denigrated as "academic". What it meant was that the picture was like a color photograph with a flat surface and no real depth. New Western paintings are good, but first we need to master true realistic paintings with perfect valeur.

*the Taisho Era --- 大正時代(1912—1926) the reign of Taisho Emperor

**the Showa Era --- 昭和時代(1926—1989) the reign of Showa Emperor

(6)

　Koyo OKADA, known as a photographer of Mt. Fuji said: "Color photography only captures the color of the surface of an object, not the true depth of color that nature shows, so I use black and white films to take pictures of Mt. Fuji. And yet, many painters look at color photos they took on their trips abroad and create their paintings in their studios. I was dismayed at their attitude.”

(7)

　“The Sunrise in the Gobi Desert” by Takeji FUJISHIMA*, which is one of the art treasures of the court, is perfect. However, I heard that he drew a lot of esquisses before this painting was completed.

*FUJISHIMA Takeji 藤島武二 (1867—1943) --- a Japanese painter (oil painting)

(8)

　Manjiro TERAUCHI*, the supreme leader of the Kofukai Art Association, is probably the best nude painter in Japan. He devoted himself to nudes until his later years. Japanese ordinary nude painters are so amateurish as if their nudes were made of beautiful celluloid, without a true sense of weight. They depict nudity with no texture. This is because the public does not have the ability to see true nudes. Even Mr. Terauchi, in his later years, said he wanted to draw nudes more deeply and proceeded with a single-minded approach. It is true that there was a sense of dimensionality and weight in his nude paintings, but there was no essential texture. Without the beauty of texture in female nudes, their value would be reduced to half. Even Renoir, who in his later years concentrated on nudes, was less expressive than the nudes of the classicists such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It's too light.

*TERAUCHI Manjiro 寺内萬治郎 (1890—1964) --- a Japanese painter (oil painting)

(9)

My approach to painting: I try to express the beauty of emotions that nature happens to show, including the beauty of a moment, such as the sunrise. On the canvas, I try to express the beauty of harmony without destroying 'the emotional beauty of the picture’ (as described by Kiyoshi OKA*). Sometimes I even add something or omit the things that exist in the real world, in order to create the beauty of the picture. (July 1991)

*OKA Kiyoshi 岡潔 (1901—1978) --- a Japanese mathematician