Laura Moen
Art as Visual Identity
A great deal of understanding about people and culture can be attained through analysis of their work, and in the case of artists, this analysis is literally drawn out for us. Though art used to be somewhat restricted to national borders, modern capabilities make these ethnic boundaries seem transient, and the results can be seen in visual culture everywhere. The artist Noboru Sawai, a student of the Yoshida School, is the result of a line of famous ukiyo-e printmakers from Japan. In examining changes in the arts produced by the school, one can better understand both the artists and the world they lived in.
Noboru Sawai was born in Takamatsu, Japan in 1931. After moving to the United States he became a U.S. citizen; while in America, he received his diploma from the Luther Bible Institute in Minneapolis and later got his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. In 1970 he returned to Japan and studied in Tokyo under Toshi Yoshida, the son of the founder of the Yoshida School, Hiroshi Yoshida. He later moved to Canada and taught at the University of Calgary in Alberta. His work is world renowned and he has had exhibitions in places ranging from Belgium to the United States.
Studying under the son of Hiroshi Yoshida, it would seem that for Noboru Sawai, going westward with his art was a given. Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) was already a master in western-style oil and watercolor before beginning his work with the ukiyo-e publisher, Watanabe Shozaburo. Though his seven original prints burned during a trip to the U.S. to sell some paintings, the few woodblock prints that he had brought with him were warmly received by the Americans, and they took great interest in them immediately. This marked the beginning of long lasting relationship between the west and the Yoshida School. After this, Hiroshi returned home and studied the woodblock printing process intensely, eventually opening his own workshop. Though most of his illustrations were based on sketches done while traveling in Japan, Hiroshi also did a great deal of traveling elsewhere, and some of his most famous pieces are images of places as diverse as the Taj Mahal in India and the Sphynx in Egypt.
Beginning with Hiroshi, the Yoshida School would play a major role in the shin-hanga (literally ‘new prints’) ukiyo–e movement which followed the largely unappreciated sosaku-hanga (‘creative prints’) movement. Sosaku-hanga was influenced by the Western arts, and turning from the traditional woodblock printmaking process called for the artist to be involved in all stages, focusing on the creativity of the artist and less on the quality of the art work. Shin-hanga brought back the old process and, ironically, would come to be better appreciated by western audiences than sosaku-hanga. Hiroshi’s son, Toshi Yoshida, would continue in his father’s footsteps, and also Noboru after him.
The artists of the Yoshida School all played large roles in the introduction of shin-hanga prints to the U.S.; likewise, the west played an important role in their subject matter. Noboru Sawai’s print, Portrait of the Artist as a Nun, is a perfect example of this. The subject matter of this piece is interesting, as it depicts this male Japanese artist in a female role most commonly associated with Christianity, but also held by women in certain Buddhist sects in countries such as Japan and Thailand. This connection between the artist’s east and west background is furthered by the fact that the nun’s western style habit is dually an image of Japan’s Mt. Fuji, an image close to the heart of the Japanese people. The colors of the piece are dark, and the artist’s eyes are depicted in an almost anime manner, a large contrast from portraits of nuns done by western artists at this time. These elements suggest a kind of personal identity conflict that a Japanese person who has become immersed in western culture might experience.
Noboru Sawai’s western influenced ukiyo–e prints, along with Hiroshi and Toshi Yoshida’s, demonstrate the fast paced movement out of traditional woodblock printing styles. Beginning with Noboru’s western realism, using reflections of light, and expressions of individual moods, the Yoshida School moved through the 20th century with grace. Following Hiroshi, Toshi Yoshida used his father’s techniques to bring the West a taste of the Japanese lifestyle with his charming depictions of everyday life. Their popular print styles made both Toshi and Hiroshi Yoshida forerunners of the shin-hanga genre. Noboru Sawai, having moved permanently to North America, receiving American degrees and teaching at a Canadian college, is the final step in the movement of the Yoshida School towards modernization and westernization.
The Yoshida School is largely responsible for the introduction of Japanese woodblock prints and shin-hanga to the United States and to much of the West in general. Their styles, retaining traditional aesthetic values, but using a more western, modern subject matter, make their works appealing to both Western and Eastern audiences. Noboru Sawai’s Portrait of the Artist as a Nun demonstrates not only these influences, but also a deeper look at the internal struggles of the artist.
Bibliography
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