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“Woman was the Sun” | Art of Japanese Women
by jsmauo
Fay Boyer Preble and Virginia Cooke Murphy Galleries Opens November 11, 2023
Pioneering feminist Hiratsuka Raichō (1886-1971) began the 1911 issue of Japan’s first all-women literary journal Seitō (Bluestocking) with the words “In the beginning, woman was the sun,” a reference to the legend that the Japanese imperial family descended from the Shintō Sun Goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami.* Despite these illustrious origins, the status of women declined over the last 2,000 years of Japanese history to the extent that they came to be viewed primarily as subservient accessories to men—“good wives and wise mothers” (ryōsai kenbo) or political pawns—rather than for their individual merit, intelligence, or creativity.
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the University of Oregon’s Center for the Study of Women in Society, the exhibition “Woman was the Sun” celebrates Japanese women through paintings, calligraphy, prints, sculpture, and decorative art from the permanent collection. The artists represented range from 19 th -century Buddhist poet, calligrapher, and ceramicist Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875) through cutting-edge contemporary artists Kusama Yayoi (born 1929) and Aoshima Chiho (born 1974), and include calligrapher Shinoda Tōkō (1913-2021), printmakers Minami Keiko (1911-2004), Iwami Reika (1927-2020), Oda Mayumi (born 1941), Betty Nobue Kano (born 1944), and Ozeki Ritsuko (born 1971), and prints by three generations of Yoshida artists: grandmother Yoshida Fujio (1887-1987), mother Yoshida Chizuko (19242017), and daughter Yoshida Ayomi (born 1958). The installation also features female subjects such as religious and literary figures, warriors, heroines, villains, and demons, along with a selection of Japanese artworks intended for curricular use.
“Woman was the Sun” was organized by chief curator Anne Rose Kitagawa and will incorporate additional art by Japanese women over the course of the exhibition.
*“In the beginning, woman was the sun, an authentic person. Now she is the moon, a wan and sickly moon, dependent on another, reflecting another’s brilliance.” – HIRATSUKA Raichō in Seitō (Bluestocking), 1911. Translated by Teruko Craig.
