TAISHŌ CHIC

Brochure cover: Kiyoshi Kobayakawa, Tipsy (1930 woodblock print).

Recently I was fortunate enough to see a special exhibit at the U.C. Berkeley Art Museum: “Taishō Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia & Deco.” This is a superb exhibit and I want to encourage people to see it if they can.

The exhibit features scroll paintings, woodblock prints, furniture, personal accessories and other miscellaneous decorative objects. The collection is on loan from the Honolulu Academy of the Arts.

Japan’s Taishō Period

This introductory paragraph from the museum’s brochure describes Japanese culture during the Taishō era:

The Taishō era was a brief but dynamic period in Japan’s modern development that is often described as a Japanese version of the Roaring Twenties. Officially it lasted from 1912 to 1926, the reign of the Emperor Taishō, but the phrase “Taishō culture” evokes a society in transition in the twenties and early thirties, when Western Jazz Age mores and styles bumped up against traditional Japanese values of harmony and tranquility. During this period, as Japan was becoming an international power, the gap, born in the Meiji era, between a traditional agriculturally based population and the modern industrial sector widened.

Against this cultural backdrop, the specific theme of the exhibition is the moga, or “modern girl.” The reason for this focus is that the anxieties and tensions between traditional and modern were projected onto (and symbolized via) women.

As the brochure explains:

The modern girl (modan gaaru, or moga for short) was the subject of much of the art of the period. These young women, the Japanese equivalent of flappers, were office workers, shopgirls, or waitresses and therefore had a measure of economic independence from their families. Cafes, dance halls, and nightclubs were public spaces most associated with moga and modern life. Tokyo was still being rebuilt following the devastating earthquake of 1923, and many young sophisticates flocked to Shanghai for its cosmopolitan nightlife.

One painting is particularly striking in conveying the tension between old and new notions of femininity. It is a woodblock color print depicting two women at the beach under a pine tree. One woman wears a kimono and holds a parasol to keep her skin protected from the sun; the other wears a Western-style bathing suit and sunbathes in a beach chair.

Another scroll painting is striking for its technical specification as well as subject: it’s positioned in a corner, each panel at right angels. It shows a bird’s eye view of two young women on the beach with the shadow of a parasol (out of sight) casting a shadow over them. While one wears her hair in a traditionally longer style, the other sports a modern (Western) bob. There are props nearby (a beachball and a radio, as I recall) that emphasize fun and leisure (relatively new preoccupations given a Western bent).

Painting Notes: Yōga and Nihonga

The brochure also describes the different genres of Japanese painting:

In general, painters identified themselves with either yōga painting, characterized by the use of Western materials such as oil and watercolor, and with progress; or nihonga painting, associated with the preservation of traditional materials, formats, and modes, and subjects such as landscape, bird-and-flower, and the figure. Many painters in both strands specialized in bijinga, or the representatin of women.

All this and text too?

Whoever wrote the on-site text for this exhibit did a fantastic job. Needless to say, I don’t visit museums to savor the little summaries on the walls! Nevertheless, the historical information and explanation of themes were almost as good as the pieces on display.

Sometimes appearing monolithically (e.g., stenciled on a wall that halted the visitors’ progress), sometimes appearing in tiny font on a placard next to the item, the words provided an unexpected bonus to the experience.

Inside brochure: Shuho Yamakawa, Three Sisters (1936 screen).

Run, don’t walk, to see Taishō Chic!

Taishō Chic runs from September 14—December 23, 2005.

Related Links:

Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
Honolulu Academy of Arts
U.C. Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
A page detailing a party to benefit this exhibit reveals the enourmous financial resources, corporate sponsorship, and community effort required to put on such a show.