Hiramatsu, The Lily Pond Homage to Monet
Hiramatsu, The Lily Pond
平松礼二・睡蓮の池・ モネへのオマージュ
Homage TO Monet
平松礼二・睡蓮の池・ モネへのオマージュ
Hiramatsu Reiji, a nihonga Painter’s Homage to Claude Monet Brigitte Koyama-Richard
The Discovery of Claude Monet’s Grandes Décorations at the Orangerie
Cherry blossoms lit by a crescent moon, delicate flowers of golden yellow or deep red maples littering a river, hilly and flowery landscapes in which Mount Fuji’s majestic cone suddenly rises... Hiramatsu Reiji has created a profusion of works of great beauty. From Japanese landscapes to New York skyscrapers, via Korean and Chinese villages, he constantly amazes us with the variety of his works, which are sometimes inspired by the great Japanese masters of the past, such as Ogata Kôrin (1658-1716) or Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and sometimes tend more toward abstraction. His paintings seduce us, with the finesse and the elegance of his linework, the refinement and harmony of the colours and their silver and gold backgrounds. For several years now, the artist has been reflecting on the same theme. He is trying to understand how the Impressionist artists drew on Japanese art, which allowed them to create works that were so innovative at the time. Among Hiramatsu Reiji’s works, several paintings and screens that represent Claude Monet’s Water Lilies catch our eye. It is easy to recognise the pond at Giverny. However the water lilies in no way resemble the coloured spots which Monet so subtly arranged on the water surface and which only reveal their shape and enchanting beauty when you take a step back from the canvas. The petals of Hiramatsu Reiji’s water lilies, in contrast, are painted with the kind of surprising regularity that only a great nihonga master can achieve. We are looking at a flamboyant reinterpretation of Monet’s work by a contemporary Japanese artist (Fig. 1). Hiramatsu Reiji, a traditional nihonga painter, only became interested in Impressionism fig. 1
Cherry Trees and Water Lilies, 2011 (detail, cat. 22) さくらと睡蓮
Nihonga, 90.9 x 72.7 cm Giverny, musée des impressionnismes, inv. MDIG 2013.1.17
and Claude Monet in particular late in life. He only saw Monet’s Grandes Décorations at the Orangerie during a trip to Paris in 1994, on the occasion of a solo exhibition at JAL Gallery. Until then he had only seen reproductions of these works and could never have known that the discovery of the Water Lilies would be a life-changing experience. He stood in front of these masterpieces in fascination, losing all sense of time. It seemed as if he was looking at fusuma, the sliding screens that are often used as doors in traditional Japanese houses or at
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FIG. 2
Japanese screens. Hiramatsu Reiji understood that Monet had created a new space and renounced Western-style linear perspective. He was looking at a unique work, a reinterpretation of Japanese art by a Western painter. Overcome with emotion, he wondered why Monet was so enamoured of Japanese art – more specifically of Japanese prints – and decided to follow in the footsteps of the French painter, to research his philosophy and art. In the last twenty years Hiramatsu Reiji has chosen to interpret Claude Monet’s paintings, by way of a tribute, but as seen through the eyes of a nihonga painter. He dedicated himself to this ‘return of Japonism to Japan’, and even used this as a title for one of his exhibitions. On several occasions he travelled to Giverny where he would spend many hours sketching this lovely Normandy village. He especially focused on the lily pond and on the painter’s garden, a real gem which Monet continuously recreated and embellished, adding rare species and varied flowers. Like Monet, Hiramatsu Reiji has repeatedly witnessed the sunrise over the lily pond. Sitting on the edge of the water, he has observed the play of light and the way the flowers unfold, like multicoloured spots on this mirror of water in which the clouds are reflected. He has observed the play of light and has scrutinised the pond’s bed in which the grasses meander. To Hiramatsu Reiji, and Claude Monet before him, this pond, a natural microcosm that sublimates daylight became a representation of the universe in which a fleeting instant can create an illusion of eternal and absolute beauty (Fig. 2).
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Current in a Summer Sky, Monet’s Pond, 1998 夏の気流（モネの池）
Kumohada-mashi paper, mineral pigments, 53 x 72.7 cm 雲肌麻紙、岩絵具
Private collection 個人蔵
Claude Monet and Japanese Art
Before discussing Hiramatsu Reiji’s career and work, it is worth recalling briefly how Monet accidentally discovered this house and its overgrown garden, which he rented and then purchased in 1890. His friend Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917), a naturalist novelist and art critic, had the following to say about this: ‘A pink-stuccoed house, at the bottom of a garden always radiant with flowers. [...] And behind the [...] house lie the undulating hills, their slopes robed in the changing motley of the harvests; in front of the garden, always radiant with flowers, stretches a succession of meadows, vast and deep; meadows where rows of poplars, in the dusty mist of the Normandy climate, form changing, dreamlike backdrops [...]’.1 In 1893 Monet, after many difficulties with the inhabitants and the municipality, finally succeeded in buying the plot of land he needed to create a lily pond. He received permission to divert the course of the River Epte for this, and subsequently to build the Japanese bridge. In his house at Giverny, Monet succeeded in creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere. The art critic and friend of the painter Gustave Geffroy (1855-1926) mentioned the warm welcome that guests received and the well-thought out menus that were served in the dining room ‘of which all the walls were decorated with a profusion of Japanese prints, which were simply put behind glass, the most beautiful, the rarest, by Kôrin,2 Harunobu3 and even Hokusai and Hiroshige.4 But also the most unexpected prints, in which Japanese art succeeded in representing the clothing and aspects of Dutch life in the colonies. Monet brought back most of these wonders from Holland. He told us that he found the first ones at a local grocer’s in the village, who had received them with food from the islands and other articles from overseas.’5 We don’t know when exactly Monet discovered Japanese prints. He told writer Marc Elder (1884-1933) that he found his first prints at the age of 16, in Le Havre, in a curiosity shop. He added that he had also found prints in a china shop in Amsterdam in 1886, stipulating that he had bargained with the owner about the price of a pot and asked him to throw in a set of prints for the proposed price.6 It doesn’t matter whether he said this out of a desire to embellish the past or because he wanted to be considered as a pioneer of Japonism. Monet’s passion for Japanese prints never tired. Their colours, the surprising low-angle views and their multiple perspectives enchanted the painter who was inspired by them for his paintings and his painter’s garden. But Monet was not only inspired by these prints for this creations. Even though we have no written sources to prove it, Monet would have probably had the opportunity to see the screens that were exhibited in Paris in 19047 and maybe even some fusuma. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Japanese art continued to have a particular attraction for Monet and many of his contemporaries. This special attraction would give rise to the art movement called Japonism. Like a wave engulfing Europe, and then the United States, Japonism gave the art world the renewal for which it had been searching for so long. Monet met with other ‘Japonisants’, which is how these artists who were so passionate about Japanese art were called. He also maintained excellent relations with the art dealer Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906), whom he had met in the 1880s. He became a regular client of Hayashi Tadamasa’s store in the Rue de la Victoire in Paris and invited the art dealer,
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who had won the trust of collectors with his knowledge and kindness, to Giverny several times. Hayashi Tadamasa was the first Japanese person to appreciate the Impressionists. He accepted to give Monet some Japanese prints in exchange for some paintings.8 Monet was also a loyal client of the art dealer Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), a rival and friend of Hayashi’s.9 Edmond de Goncourt (1922-1896) mentions the following in his famous diary on the date of Wednesday 17 February 1892: ‘As I was browsing Hokusai’s large panels of Fouzi-Yama, Manzi said to me: ‘Look, here are Monet’s large yellow patches of colour.’ And he was right. Because we are not really aware of the fact that our contemporary landscape artists borrowed this imagery – above all Monet – whom I frequently run into in Bing’s small attic with Japanese prints where you can find Lévy.’10 Edmond de Goncourt, like the painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and many
fig. 3
contemporary critics, did not fail to mention the influence of Japanese art on Monet’s work.
Path, Winter’s Day, 1979
Octave Mirbeau went as far as to write: ‘He rendered something which only the Japanese
路—冬日
had succeeded in doing so far, and which seemed like a lost secret, the intangible, the elusive, the very air.’11 Monet himself admitted his admiration for these Japanese artists to the art
Torinoko paper, mineral pigments, suihi pigments, 162.1 x 227.3 cm
critic Roger Marx: ‘If you absolutely must find an affiliation for me, select the Japanese of
鳥の子紙 岩絵具、水干絵具
olden times: their rarified taste has always appealed to me; and I sanction the implications
Chûnichi shinbun-sha
of their esthetic that evokes a presence by means of a shadow and the whole by means of fragment.’12 Although there were Japanese prints on the walls throughout the house at Giverny and the painter was captivated by them, his true passion was his garden and his lily pond. On 22 June 1890, Monet wrote the following to Gustave Geffroy: ‘[...] I am working and have hardly thought of travelling to Paris for a long while. Painting and the joy of seeing my flowers are all I need to be happy. But you know I also like it when friends that I cherish visit me... I have started to do things that are deemed impossible: water with grasses waving in its depths, it’s amazing to see but maddening to want to paint this. But I always like to try these things anyway! I leave you to get back to work [...].’13 This marks the beginning of the artist’s tireless effort to paint the reflection of light on water. Monet was rarely satisfied with his efforts and angrily destroyed many of his canvases. Octave Mirbeau, a privileged witness, reported how the artist would start every day, at the same time, working for the same amount of time, with the same light, the same motif, until he achieved the desired result. He observed the painter, as he focused on his subject, as he worked tirelessly to understand the secret of light: ‘In the foreground of the canvas, which is made up of only water, a shiny, mirroring, flowing surface, the eye gradually dives down into these refreshing waves and through these liquid transparencies to a bed of golden sand, discovering a plethora of lake-bound floral life, of extraordinary submerged vegetation and long fibrous algae, that are wild, greenish, purplish, and which move, twist, become muddled, are scattered and gathered again by the current like a soft and bizarre mane of hair; which then undulates, meanders, curls up and stretches out again, resembling strange fish and the fantastic tentacles of marine monsters.’14 Claude Monet’s determination and the immense amount of work he did over a thirty-
fig. 4
Paths: Shinjuku, Tôkyô, Japan, 1981 路—シンジュク・トウキョウ・ジャパン
gave rise to the Grandes Décorations of the Orangerie, which originated near the lily pond. The
Kumohada-mashi paper, mineral pigments, metal leaf, 193.9 x 112.1 cm
painter Hiramatsu Reiji also visited Giverny, in order to understand the artist’s philosophy and
雲肌麻紙、岩絵具、箔
to pay homage to him by reinterpreting his work using the techniques of nihonga.
Private collection
year period, during which he had to struggle with cataracts that threatened to blind him,
個人蔵
6
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The Choice of nihonga
Before discussing the work of the nihonga painter Hiramatsu Reiji, we need to start by explaining what nihonga is. Nihonga literally means Japanese (nihon) painting (ga). Like the words bijutsu (art) or yôga (Western-style painting) the word nihonga originated during the Meiji period (1868- 1912), a period of radical change in all levels of Japanese society, which was encouraged to open up to the West by the new government.15 Although European art only gradually entered Japan in the sixteenth century, with the arrival of the Jesuits, an artist like Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747) became interested in it in the seventeenth century. And in the following century in particular, the traditional painter Shiba Kôkan (1747-1818) taught himself oil painting and the technique of engraving on copper. But it was not until the Meiji period that pioneers like the painter Takahashi Yuichi (1828-1894) started to impose their style and contribute to the reputation of Western painting. The state also played a decisive role. It invited three Italian artists to teach at the newly-founded Academy of Fine Arts of the Minister of Public Works, which opened in 1876 (it would be closed in 1883). They included the painter and engraver Antonio Fontanesi (1818-1882), a specialist in architecture called Giovanni Cappelletti (1835-1887) and the sculptor Vincenzo Ragusa (1841-1927). These artists were asked to teach oil painting and pastels, how to manufacture pigments, as well as perspective and sculpture. Many young Japanese painters were trained by these Italian masters, including Asai Chû (1856-1907) or Yamamoto Hôsui (1850-1906). Many of them subsequently travelled to Europe, France especially, for several years to study there. They also frequented artistic and literary circles. Yamamoto Hôsui for example illustrated the beautiful collection of poems by his friend Judith Gautier (1845-1917): Les poèmes de la libellule.16 As Western painting rose to the fore however, and out of fear that Japan would lose its own artistic identity, a group of young Japanese officials, including Kuki Ryûichi (1852-1931) and Okakura Kakuzô (Tenshin) (1853-1908) decided to take action. Won over by the teachings of Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), a young American professor who taught western political and economic thought at the University of Tôkyô and who was passionate about traditional art, they joined him in reconsidering traditional Japanese art and national heritage at its true value. They left to Europe and the United States in the mid-1880s and returned convinced that traditional Japanese art should be included in the fine arts category. So they founded the first major art periodical called Kokka (Flower of the Nation) in 1889, the same year that the Academy of Fine Arts in Tôkyô opened its doors. Okakura Kakuzô (Tenshin) was appointed the academy’s director. Although traditional painting was taught by painters like Hashimoto Gahô (1835-1908) and Kawabata Gyokushô (1842-1913) Western-style painting was only taught at the academy as of 1896. In 1898, the students were taught by a man who would go on to become the most famous painter of his generation, Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924), who returned to Japan after having spent nine years in France. As of then, Western-style painting (yôga) and traditional Japanese painting (nihonga) were taught freely (see the insert on nihonga technique on pages 28-29).
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FIG. 5
Paths: Where I Once Walked, 1987 路—いつかきた路
Kumohada-mashi paper, mineral pigments, gilt leaf, 210 x 450 cm 雲肌麻紙、岩絵具、金箔
Hakone, Ashinoko Narukawa Museum
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FIG. 6
FIG. 7
Journey to Japonism, Cherry Petals on Monet’s Pond, 2001
A New Morning Dawns on Japan, 2004
ジャポニスムへの旅－モネの池に桜
日本の新しい朝の光
Stage curtain of Chunichi Theatre 緞帳
Stained glass window, 300 x 900 cm
Tatsumura tapestry, 龍村 950 x 213 cm
ステンドグラス
Chûnichi shinbun-sha
Aichi University
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Hiramatsu Reiji, like all the painters of his generation, discovered Western painting before becoming interested in nihonga. It is surprising to see that in Japan, since the end of World War II, children in schools learn about oil painting and the works of famous western artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and Cézanne, but hardly ever hear about the great Japanese masters of print or traditional painting. That’s also how Hiramatsu Reiji was introduced to the oil painting technique. But this was not just a simple hobby for him: he already knew, deep down, that he wanted to become a painter. As he did not come from a family of artists, he realised that he would have to stand up to his parents and family. So while his parents hoped that he would go to the grammar school for which he had been accepted after passing the entrance exam, Hiramatsu Reiji instead decided to go to technical school where he applied himself to learning the oil painting technique and sculpture, as well as nihonga. It was a revelation for him. From the start, he was fascinated by the purity, the beauty, the multitude of mineral pigments. He preferred the matte pigments of nihonga to the shiny oils. He appreciated the flexibility of Japanese paper, of silk, of the many brushes, the shape of which is unique to Japan. Today his passion is still intact. He is still fascinated by the play of colours that are not mixed, unlike in oil painting. Instead they are superposed, one by one, and left to dry until the desired result is obtained. In his studio in Kamakura, Hiramatsu Reiji never tires of watching the rainbow of his pigments, which are lined up neatly in glass containers. He selects them with care and modestly admits, like all great painters, that he carefully observes each colour obtained, starting over again time after time to achieve what he wants. Nihonga requires a great deal of patience and long hours of work, sitting on your knees on the floor or on a large board arranged above large-format canvases. Hiramatsu Reiji is demanding and like Monet before him he does not hesitate to destroy those works with which he is not satisfied. He shares his quest for beauty with all the great artists.
From the Early Works to the Water Lilies
Hiramatsu Reiji is sincere when he discusses his admiration for his masters, like Kawabata Ryûshi (1885-1966). He admits that he chose nihonga without a moment’s hesitation, even though he had the impression that he was going against the grain as most of the painters of his generation opted for Western painting techniques. He does not regret his choice in spite of the financial difficulties that he experienced for several years and which prevented him from painting as much as he would have liked. During several TV programmes devoted to him, the artist explained that until the age of forty his life was a permanent struggle. He had to accept many odd jobs to feed his family of three sons, never had the means to purchase the precious pigments or the space to paint large-format canvases. Only a few of his early works remain, as several of them were kept in makeshift studios and destroyed by bad weather. But he was never discouraged and his wife was always by his side, allowing him to become the recognised artist that he is today. He fondly remembers the day when for the first time the sale of a work earned him a certain amount of money. He rushed to a speciality store to buy many pigments and still waxes emotional when he remembers the tears of joy in the eyes of his wife, Hiroko. Today she still supports him in his work. In their second home at Karuizawa, which is also a studio, Hiroko has succeeded in creating a real painter’s garden for her
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FIG. 8
Kimono and silk obi ‘Summer Colours’, after a drawing by Hiramatsu Reiji, 2009 着物に帯『夏彩』 （平松礼二作の模様；絹） Private collection 個人蔵
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husband over the last ten years. Like at Giverny, water lilies bloom in a pond, and multitudes of flowers – daffodils, crocuses, gladioli, roses, irises, hydrangeas – create thousands of shades of colour in this wonderful garden. In springtime, plum and cherry trees as well as magnolias blossom here. In autumn, the sunlight dapples the tiny graceful leaves of the Japanese maple, after which winter enters the landscape with its majestic pines covered in snow. Hiroko created this garden for her husband, who is passionate about nature and is always searching for new colours and shades to transpose into his paintings. In autumn 2011, Nagoya City Museum dedicated a major retrospective to Hiramatsu Reiji’s work. While it includes his early works from the 1960s, which laid the foundation for his style, his passion for nature and the landscape, the artist truly came into his own with the Paths series (1980s) – with the mountainous, tempestuous landscapes of South Korea and their dark skies, and no sign of a human presence around the dwellings. These extraordinarily beautiful paintings exude a moving and striking atmosphere
(Fig. 3).
He
then went on to paint the landscapes of the capital, like the tower of Tôkyô which proudly overlooks the surrounding buildings, the buildings in the new district of Shinjuku, where the sun is reflected on the windows illuminating them with a thousand lights, turning the glass into a giant kaleidoscope (Fig. 4). In the 1990s he also painted the skyscrapers of New York but he was not interested in the life of the people in these big cities but in the urban landscape. Hiramatsu Reiji is above all a landscape painter. He excels at this, and his landscapes of the Japanese countryside throughout the seasons, from the first white and pastel pink flowers of the trees in springtime to the reddening of the maple leaves in autumn, sometimes achieve a fantastic beauty when the painter includes the moon twice in his paintings (Fig. 5). The four seasons to which the Japanese soul has always been so sensitive are sometimes even suggested in one and the same painting. Evoking the change of colours over time, his paintings are an ode to life and the splendour of nature. As a nihonga painter, Hiramatsu Reiji uses the beauty of natural pigments as well as metal leaf, especially gilt leaf. He creates fields of wheat in which the golden ears gently sway in the wind on a summer’s night with this gilt leaf, which he manages to tame into being delicate and fragile. His mastery achieves perfection and he is capable of cutting stalks of wheat that are only one or two millimetres wide in this gilt leaf. Hiramatsu Reiji’s art is very decorative and his works have been chosen for stained glass windows like The Castle of Youth for the commemorative hall of the National Defence Academy in Tôkyô or A New Morning Dawns on Japan (Fig. 7), which was created to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Aichi University. Chûnichi Theatre in Nagoya chose The Cherry Trees of Monet’s Pond and have incorporated it into a stunning stage curtain (Fig. 6). Recently the artist also painted his beautiful lilies and other landscapes on kimonos and obis (kimono sashes) (Fig. 8).
A Homage to Claude Monet
Although the two painters have focused on the theme of water lilies, it would be futile to compare them. Hiramatsu Reiji did not want to copy the water lilies. Instead he was inspired by them to create a new work with different processes and materials. Nihonga has nothing in common with oil painting. It is also different from the polychrome woodblock prints (known as brocade). Monet wanted to capture the instant, the fleetingness of light, the reflection of the sky and the surrounding vegetation in his mirror of water. He spent sev-
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eral long years trying to paint the bottom of the pond in which the grasses almost tease the water surface over which a dragonfly skims. Did the lily pond become a reflection of his soul, that was always unsatisfied and tormented? But why are Hiramatsu Reiji’s compositions and works so different, even though they have the subject of beauty in common with Monet’s works? Rather than give my own personal interpretation I wanted to hear what the artist had to say: ‘In 1994, I discovered the amazing masterpiece that is Monet’s Water Lilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie. I was seized with a violent emotion. I thought that if you folded these canvases across you would end up with screens. I wondered what could have possibly prompted Monet to choose the pond, the water lilies and other plants in his garden as a motif for such large-format paintings. So I decided to travel to Giverny to solve this puzzle. I walked around the pond many times and suddenly I realised that Monet had purposefully given it the shape of a hand mirror, which was so popular with Japanese women during the Edo period. The sky, the clouds, the green trees were reflected in this mirror of water. The pots of water lilies had been placed at equal distances. The stems had grown, the leaves fanned out in a circle shape on the water’s surface and tiny flowers blossomed in the centre, which are quite different from lotuses, which are also aquatic plants. The water lilies are much smaller. These charming “decorations” give the pond a special beauty. Monet had succeeded remarkably in blending Japanese art with Western art in this landscape. I decided to borrow this landscape of beauty that Monet created and decided on an experiment, with a Japanese perspective. I prepared a screen, covered with silk, 1.685 metres high and 7.08 metres wide, on which I applied pure gilt leaf. I chose the light of the pond, the clouds, the weeping willows and the water lilies as a motif. During my stay at Giverny, I had already developed the plan and made several sketches. Nihonga paintings cannot be done outside. So I laid down the screen on the floor of my studio and sat on a board to paint. I used Chinese ink, in various hues, which is the base colour of nihonga to draw the outline of the weeping willows and the water lilies and then superimposed layers of mineral colours that were bright or less bright. I decided to use gold to convey the effect of the light on the pond. And so I succeeded in completing this experimental work with verification and reproduction in mind, which I called Giverny, Monet’s Pond; Sound of the Wind
(cat. 11),
with my own sensibility and typically Japanese materials.
I then decided on a second experiment, still working with the decorative aspect of the water lilies, which I wanted to make stand out even more. I decided to not use pure green but instead added swathes of metal leaf, platinum, silver, bronze, mother of pearl and powdered red clam (aka gai: scapharca broughtonii), the natural raw materials and colours of the Japanese tradition. I realised that the entire surface had taken on a decorative appearance that was similar to medieval works. This beauty, which was a compromise between Japan and the West which I appreciate more than anything, gave rise to a new kind of Water Lilies.’ ‘I started on a new work with water lilies that had just opened, to which I added the petals of cherry blossoms on the water surface to better emphasise the decorative aspect and approach reality even more. I painted these petals with gofun, a white that is obtained after grinding the mother of pearl of oysters and clams down to powder. I am firmly convinced that the white obtained from this process is the most beautiful white in the world. The nihonga painter does not mix the colours on a palette like in western art. He applies each colour one at a time, superposing them with care, as he tries to imagine the final result. This is hard work, and requires a great deal of patience and time. But it allows you to obtain refined colours, with amazing depth, which give a great sense of satisfaction once the work is completed.
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‘Japanese ukiyo-e prints are small prints but they were very popular with Impressionist painters because of their bold composition, their magnificent colours, their cosmic sensation and the fact that the drawing continues beyond the margins. Today there are only a few painters who perpetuate the heritage left to us by these prints. I was thinking about their long history and told myself that I needed to follow in the footsteps of these artists.’ ‘I long to continue my comparative research, not only between the East and the West, but also focusing on the art of other countries in order to paint works that are a fusion of these cultures. Claude Monet left us a research theme, which was the difference of cultures. I am deeply grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to attempt to reproduce his works, using nihonga, to experiment, find solutions and reinforce several aspects of my art.’17 This exhibition will give the Western public the opportunity to discover an aspect of the wealth of this great Japanese artist’s work. The works of the painter Hiramatsu Reiji will be hung alongside the works of Monet (cat. 14-16 and 31-33) and Japanese prints (cat. 37-63) and will give visitors the opportunity to admire the virtuosity of this great nihonga artist. While looking at this paintings of the village of Giverny and its surroundings, the cypresses, the wheat fields and the water lilies, the spectator will appreciate this homage by a contemporary artist to Claude Monet. Today neither time nor distance separate Claude Monet and Hiramatsu Reiji any longer. They are as one in their absolute quest for beauty.
1. Octave Mirbeau, ‘Claude Monet’, L’ Art dans les deux mondes, no. 16, 7 March 1891, p. 183. English translation: Charles F. Stuckey ed., Monet a Retrospective, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1985, p. 157 and 159. 2. Ogata (1658-1716), Japanese painter. 3. Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770), Japanese painter. 4. Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Japanese painter. 5. Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet. Sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris, Les Éditions Macula, 1987, p. 448-449 [Originally published by: Paris, Crès et Cie, 1924]. 6. Marc Elder, À Giverny chez Claude Monet, Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Éditeurs d’art, Paris, 1924, p. 63. See also, Octave Mirbeau, La 628-E8, Fasquelle, 1907, p. 224-225. 7. Virginia Spate, David Bromfield, ‘A Very Oriental Dream – The Waterlily Pool’, Monet & Japan, cat. exhib. Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, 9 March-11 June 2001; Perth, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 7 July-16 September 2001, p. 56. 8. Brigitte Koyama-Richard, Japon rêvé, Edmond de Goncourt et Hayashi Tadamasa, Paris, Hermann Éditeur des sciences et des arts, 2001, p. 166. 9. Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet. Catalogue Raisonné. Supplément aux peintures, dessins, pastels, index, vol. V, Lausanne, Wildenstein Institute, Bibliothèque des Arts, 1991, p. 196. On 15 November 1890, Monet sent a letter to Geffroy in which he told him about the exhibition of Japanese art organised by Bing, adding that he hoped that the merchant would set aside some beautiful objects for him. 10. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Journal, Mémoires de la vie littéraire, III. 1887-1896, Paris, Robert Laffont, collection ‘Bouquins’, 1989, p. 665. 11. Octave Mirbeau, ‘Impressions d’art’, Le Gaulois, 16 June 1886, in ‘Correspondance avec Claude Monet’, edited, annotated and published by Pierre Michel and Jean-François Nivet, Tusson, Éditions Du Lérot, 1990, p. 237. 12. Roger Marx, ‘Les Nymphéas de M. Claude Monet’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, June 1909, p. 528. English translation: Charles F. Sucky ed., Monet a Retrospective, o.c., p. 255 and 267. 13. Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet. Catalogue raisonné, Supplément aux peintures, dessins, pastels, index, vol. V, op. cit., p. 184: *1060 [Letters and hist.doc., Chavaray, Paris, October 1980, no. 38773. Sale, Paris, Drouot, 17 June 1987]. 14. Octave Mirbeau, ‘Claude Monet’, op. cit., p. 185. 15. See the publication by Michael Lucken, L’ Art du Japon au vingtième siècle, Paris, Hermann Éditeurs des sciences et des arts, 2001. 16. Brigitte Koyama-Richard, ‘Introduction’, in Le Japon et la Chine dans les oeuvres de Judith Gautier, Tôkyô, Édition Synapse, 2007, 5 volumes, p. V-XXIII; and ‘Introduction’, in Poèmes de la libellule par Judith Gautier, Tôkyô, Édition Synapse, 2007, additional volume, p. 1-3. 17. Hiramatsu Reiji, interview by the author in September 2012.
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Nihonga technique 1
Brigitte Koyama-Richard
Nihonga is an ancient art form that is over 1,000 years old, which was practised in China and Korea after which it became popular in Japan. The word nihonga means ‘Japanese painting’ and was coined at the end of the nineteenth century to distinguish traditional Japanese painting from western-style oil painting (yôga), which was very popular at the time among artists. Today this term refers to Japanese painting that mainly uses natural pigments, minerals, the mother of pearl of various shells, Chinese ink, water, nikawa (hide glue) and gold, silver, platinum leaf, and so on. Artists in Japan2 have used various media
Hiramatsu in his studio, 1994 アトリエでの平松礼二、1994 年
since ancient times. Nowadays the two main materials on which nihonga are executed are silk (Eginu silk (literally: silk for painting) is used most frequently) and Japanese paper (washi), which is different from western paper (yôshi). Nihonga technique is mainly used for screens (byôbu), sliding doors (fusuma), hanging scrolls (kakejiku) and horizontal scrolls (kanjiku). The painter mostly uses mineral pigments that have been ground down to an extremely fine powder. These days painters also add high-quality artificial pigments (shin-iwa-enogu), making the technique more affordable for amateurs. There are also earth pigments or pigments made from ground mother of pearl. The primary colours are blue (gunjô), such as azurite or lapis lazuli, green (rokushô) made of malachite, red for which they use cinnabar (shinsha), vermillion (shu) and tan, an orange-red pigment made of iron oxide. Yellows, such as kincha, a pigment made of ferruginous quartz and ochre (ôdô), made of clay, are also frequently used. The whites in nihonga paintings are quite different from the whites in western painting. From the Nara period (710-784) to the Kamakura period (1185-1333) ‘Chinese white’ (gofun) was the term used to designate lead white, which was imported from Persia. Subsequently a new pigment, made of the mother of pearl found in shells, was imported from China. This white was much less harmful than lead white. Other whites include mica (unmo), a brilliant powder that is also called kira, which is mainly made of potassium silicate, which is also used in Japanese prints. Another white is hakudo, a volcanic white clay, which is also called kaolin.
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Other pigments such as coral (sango), indigo (ai), carmine and so on are also used. Gilt, silver and platinum leaf, which is about 1/10000 mm thick and very decorative, is applied in patterns (kirikane) or in small squares (kirihaku). The pigments must be mixed with hide glue (nikawa) to fix them on the material. Nikawa, which is made of bones, tendons and the intestines of cows, comes in strips or sheets that are diluted in water for several hours, after which they are heated to 60 or 70 degrees, and the resulting liquid is filtered. Nikawa, when mixed with alum, is called dôsa, the liquid adhesive needed to create a painting. It is also used to bind gofun. It can be used on paper, wood or fabric. Brushes (hake, fude) in all shapes and sizes, made of cat fur, weasel fur or raccoon fur, are the painter’s main tools.
Hide glue (nikawa) sticks 膠（にかわ）
The painter always works in his studio, sitting, legs folded. He applies a layer of binder (dosa) on mashi, torinoko or ganpi paper, which is laid flat on a sheet of plywood, with a large brush to fix the colours. He then paints his subject with Chinese ink. He then prepares his paints in small porcelain recipients in which the artist mixes the finely ground pigments with hide glue (nikawa). The glue makes up 10% of the pigment weight. He then gently mixes them and adds water. Then he applies the pigment on the paper with a brush after which he lets the colour dry, superimposing another pigment like a colour wash in order to obtain the desired colour. Sometimes the artist may place his work on an easel to add shades or finishes. No varnish is used on the completed work.
Hiramatsu Reiji’s studio 平松礼二のアトリエ 1
For further information about the history and technique of nihonga, see the following publications and dictionaries: Hiramatsu Reiji, Sanzui o egaku. Dohosha mook, ninki sakka ni manabu nihonga no giho 4, Kyôto, Dohosha Publishing Co, Ltd 1994. Zukai, nihonga no dento to keisho, sozai, byosha, shufuku, Tôkyô, Tôkyô Bijutsu, Tôkyô National University of Fine Arts and Music, 2002. Zukai, Nihonga yogo jiten, Tôkyô, Tôkyô Bijutsu, Tôkyô National University of Fine Arts and Music, 2007. An illustrated Dictionary of Japanese-Style Painting Terminology Nihonga, Japanese Painting (Conservation), Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tôkyô University of the Arts, 2010. 2. Some of the first surfaces to be used for this type of painting included rock and earth walls (tsuchikabe), as was the case for example in the Japanese burial mounds. This technique is very similar to the fresco technique which was practised in Europe. Other materials used include wood, more specifically Japanese Cypress (Hinoki, Chamaecyparis obtusa), Japanese Cryptomeria (Sugi, Cryptomeria japonica), Paulownia (Kiri), etc. Leather and hemp were also frequently used.
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Oguri Kôhei, Sleeping Man, 1996 小栗康平、 『眠る男』、1996年
18
Interview with Hiramatsu Reiji and Oguri Kôhei
to have discriminatory feelings about the Koreans, whether from North or South Korea, for historical reasons that are related to the long years of Japan’s colonial rule in Korea. While looking at this series of very ‘dark’ paintings I felt like telling Hiramatsu that this situation made me weep as much as he did. But I also wanted to
By Brigitte Koyama-Richard
shake his hand like a friend and that’s how I came to love the man and his work. Hiramatsu Reiji
Oguri Kohei is a Japanese director, stage director and author. He
In 1981, Oguri Kôhei’s first film, Doro no kawa (Muddy River) was
has received several awards in Japan and abroad and is one of the
shown all over Japan. And this film won almost every award in
best known directors in Japan. Since the 1980s he has been friends
Japan. But that’s not all. It was also selected in the United States
with Hiramatsu Reiji, whose works he admires. He asked him to
to represent Japan in the category for best foreign language film
contribute to his film, Sleeping Man (1996), commissioning a large
for the Oscars, sparking surprise and enthusiasm among film
canvas from him which was used as a backdrop in the film.
fans. It must be said that at the time Japan, which was just breaking free from the shackles of the post-war period, was still riding high on the wave of economic growth and that everyone was
Brigitte Koyama-Richard to Oguri Kohei
obsessed with the idea of living in luxury. Cinema was still the
Can you tell us how you met Hiramatsu and why you felt such an
preferred form of entertainment and in cinemas the dimensions
attraction to his work?
of the screens were becoming increasingly large. Everywhere you
Oguri Kohei
spin... And what about the content of these movies! Action, love,
turned there was a riot of natural colours, which made your head In 1980 I directed my first film, Doro no Kawa (Muddy River), after
eroticism, the grotesque, nonsense... I think that filmmakers and
the eponymous work by the novelist Miyamoto Teru.1 The film
audiences alike were over-excited by everything and anything.
was set in Ôsaka, on the banks of the River Yodo, a decade after
And it was in this context that the film Muddy River was presented,
Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War – at a time when the wounds
a film which was absolutely classic, a black and white film! When
of the war had not yet healed, in other words. In the early 1980s,
I think about it, this work must have felt like a cold shower for
however, following our country’s strong economic growth, the
a crowd that was living it up. Like many other cinemagoers,
city of Ôsaka underwent some spectacular changes and there
I went to see this film which gave me my share of suffering and
was no more trace of the immediate post-war landscapes. So
sorrow and then I went back to my workshop, my legs trembling.
I searched for another location for my film and ended up in Nagoya,
And saying to myself: ‘What an amazing filmmaker! One day I’d
near Nakagawa Canal, a place that was completely abandoned
like to meet him...’ and I never forgot this.
and which had miraculously survived. I met Hiramatsu for the first time after I completed the film and – surprise, surprise! –
At the time I was working in a warehouse near the place
I learned that he had just installed his studio in a warehouse
where the film was made – I rented it as a studio. When I was
on the banks of Nakagawa Canal. In his youth Hiramatsu had
tired of painting I would sit on the quays along Nakagawa Canal
painted a work entitled The Dining Room of the Wreck (Haisen
and would stare aimlessly at the schools of mullets which would
shokudo). This painting was quite different from the Japanese
rise up to the water surface. I was working on a large format ni-
style (nihonga) paintings that we were used to seeing until
honga style painting. It measured 2.1 m by 6.4 metres and was
then, because of its theme and the way in which he used colour.
destined for an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts of Kyôto
Hiramatsu is four years older than me but in spite of this slight
entitled ‘Eighteen angry young painters’. This was a group exhi-
age difference – in the sense that he was perceived as a ‘man of
bition of painters who were aware of the crisis that the Japanese
the post-war generation in Japan’ at the start of his career – I really
art world was going through at the time. It is a notoriously con-
feel that we belong to the same generation. When I met him, he
servative and closed environment. We had great fears about the
was working on a series of paintings about the burials in Korea.
future of painting in our country. Our group, which was called
At the time it was simply inconceivable that a Japanese painter,
‘Yoko no Kai’ (which literally means ‘the Lateral Group’) thought
who was associated with such a traditional art form, would paint
that this type of exhibition was a way of highlighting our opposi-
freshly turned earth during burials. Japanese society continues
tion to this outdated system. In a certain way our activities were
19
similar to those of the Impressionist movement, but also to those
on the window pane. Where did you get the idea of using this
of the ‘Solidarity’ movement in Eastern Europe. After ten years we
particular work by Hiramatsu? And what do you think it means?
stopped organising the ‘Yoko no Kai’ exhibitions but they had a great impact on the art world.
Oguri Kôhei Much like Hiramatsu wants to create ‘Japanese’ paintings I want
One day in 1984, I decided to write a letter to Oguri Kôhei.
to make ‘Japanese’ films. The hero of Nemuru otoko (Sleeping
He very kindly agreed to visit me in my workshop in Nagoya along
Man) is incapable of moving and speaking so he is incapable of
Nakagawa Canal. I decided to organise a party to welcome him,
contributing to the film’s momentum or plot, or the course of
with some friends, and we decided to make a ‘stew in the dark’.
action. But that does not prevent the moon from waxing and
The idea is to light a stove with charcoal and once the light has
waning, the seasons from passing and people from evolving. All
been switched off, every participant in the game adds the ingre-
of us, who live here on earth, are caught in a perpetual dynamic
dients he brought to the pot. Then you boil the mixture over a low
of change. For this ‘sleeping man’ I used an approach that is dif-
heat and when you remove the lid you discover fish, meat, veg-
ferent from Western thought or philosophy, which always places
etables, all the usual foods, but sometimes there are also com-
man at the centre of the universe and gives priority to language,
pletely unexpected ingredients. Some jokers like to put anything
believing that everything can be expressed with words. Here’s an
and everything in there, including lizards, centipedes, frogs, and
example: in Japan a traditional house is a space that is delimit-
even slippers or gloves.
ed by all kinds of movable partitions – the shôji and fusama that separate the rooms from one another, the windows and shutters.
Suddenly, when the embers were already bright red,
When these are closed you are ‘within’. When you leave these par-
someone yelled: ‘I have a headache, I feel nauseous! Let’s get out
titions open the well-defined boundary between the ‘within’ and
of here!’ And that’s how we narrowly escaped carbon monoxide
the ‘outside’ disappears. In short, the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ are not
poisoning. Had we been just a little more drunk I think the stew
permanently fixed. They are relative spaces, and you can always
game, which we organised especially in honour of Oguri, would
go back and forth between them. This vision of nature consti-
have turned into a true hell. We became friends from that day
tutes the cornerstone of Japanese sensitivity but it is not restrict-
onwards.
ed to our homes. It is the very foundation of our entire culture. You could have never made a film like Sleeping Man in a European
Brigitte Koyama-Richard to Oguri Kôhei
house, in which the ‘within’ is defined by stone walls, which mark
Your films are widely appreciated, both in Japan and abroad.
an opposition and are like a protective shell compared with the
People call them artistic and philosophical and say that they cre-
‘outside’. The painting on the wood panel which I commissioned
ate a world of beauty. In the film Nemuru otoko (Sleeping Man,
from Hiramatsu is a vital part of this film. It is a symbol of this film
1996), the first film which you produced, wrote and directed,
and a main plot device. Just before I started filming Hiramatsu
you used a painting by Hiramatsu. The film is set in a village in
called me to say that he had completed the painting and that
Gunma Department, which is surrounded by magnificent moun-
I could come and see it. That day the sun was about to set. While
tains and forests. After a fall in the mountains, hero Takuji rests
I was looking at the painting, which had been propped up against
unconscious in his parents’ house. Everyone does their best to
a wall of his studio, the darkness gradually started to envelop the
take good care of him but nothing will get him out of his coma.
surroundings. And as it became darker, the moon on the panel
This is a stunning film, which resonates with mystery and ani-
was gradually reflected in the large windows of his workshop. Its
mism, and which makes us think about the way of life of the vil-
colour and expression constantly changed. The sheer beauty of
lagers until Takuji dies. At the same time it also makes us reflect
it sent shivers down my spine. I said to myself: ‘This time, I know
on the passage of time, on the seasons, on human relations, on
for certain! Even though the man who sleeps has no movement,
life and death.
the film will...’. And I believe that Hiramatsu was perfectly aware of this. To paint the moon he did not content himself to use gold
On the wall of the room full of tatamis in which the hero is rest-
and silver. Instead he even used platinum leaf. The way in which
ing there is a wooden panel on which you can see the full moon,
he superimposed and combined the colours was so subtle. In fact
dotted with small white spots from the branches of the plum
Hiramatsu had done everything possible to ensure that this work
tree. When the ‘sleeper’ is filmed from the outside, the colours
would look different depending on the orientation and the inten-
of this painting change, depending on whether it is day or night.
sity of the light. As a result, when shooting the film, we had to
And at night the moon in the painting casts a golden reflection
sometimes wait an entire day to adjust the lighting on the paint-
20
ing. The hero, the sleeping man, constantly looks happy, with this
that painting a large moon, which would be installed in the
work of Hiramatsu’s in the background. At the end he dies, but in
centre of the space where Takuji, the hero of the film, played by Ahn
his last moments, his appearance is as beautiful and serene as
Sung-ki, was sleeping would certainly contribute to creating a vast,
that of Christ, or of Buddha who has achieved Nirvana.
deep and beautiful scene. And from there on, I made slow progress,
Brigitte Koyama-Richard, to Hiramatsu Reiji
plum blossom – in the hope that people would sense the scent of
Can you tell us more about the work that you created for Oguri
spring floating around this white plum tree. When I found out on
Kohei’s film, Sleeping Man?
TV that the film received the Special Grand Prize of the Jury at the
brush stroke after brush stroke. By taking my time to paint each
World Film Festival in Montreal I toasted to the film’s success time Hiramatsu Reiji
and again in my studio as I gazed at the moon.
As far as possible I tried not to visit the set or studios where Oguri would film. In cinema, a number of elements need to come to-
Brigitte Koyama-Richard to Oguri Kôhei
gether to create, very precisely, even the briefest shot, which corres-
I think that Hiramatsu’s painting which you used in Sleeping Man
ponds with one line in the script: the actors, the equipment, the
is in perfect harmony with the narrative. Which of Hiramatsu’s
props... And sometimes the amount of film you shoot is up to ten
works do you like best (I’m thinking for example of the series
or one hundred times longer than the actual film, once completed.
of Paths or the Water Lilies)? On the other hand I think that
Over the months and years you end up accumulating a huge
Hiramatsu’s originality is in the delicacy of his brush strokes and
amount of documentation. I once heard that during the editing
the magnificent use of colour. Can you share your impressions on
process the director’s job is to eliminate a large number of scenes
how Hiramatsu uses colour?
to approximate the original objectives. A natural setting, which, at first glance, looks like it did not require any work whatsoever, in
Oguri Kôhei
effect is the result of a creative process, in which freshness and the
The originality of Hiramatsu’s work is perhaps due to the fact
great subtlety of how we look at things are combined. I may prac-
that the light in these paintings is never natural. Even in the pale
tise a different artistic genre but when I am in my studio I ideally
moonlight the night-time sky is intensely blue, just like the sky
like to be alone. So I said to myself that Oguri undoubtedly felt the
during daytime. And the colour rendering gives the impression
same. That is why I chose not to get involved in his work. While
that the trees of our planet are covered with flowers. So the ques-
reading the script that he sent me before he started to work on
tion is: from where does this light which seems to carve out the
the film I tried to imagine what the film would look like and in my
contours of every flower come? I sometimes think that it is un-
studio I fantasised about ‘another film by Oguri Kôhei’. Once the
worldly. I personally think that this obviously is not ‘natural’ light –
film was completed we got together and enjoyed some good times,
by that I mean the type of light that creates a clear separation
prepared food and sang songs. Oguri commissioned the painting
between night and day. In Hiramatsu’s works, time is not une-
on the wood panel in Sleeping Man from me. I read the script be-
quivocal. Instead it is like a current which flows in all directions.
forehand and asked him several questions about the film’s content.
It is phantasmagorical, clear, magical. But certain paintings seem
I then very quickly finished a first sketch. The film company’s pro-
almost too ‘smooth’, too devoid of intention and it is precisely
duction designer delivered the panel to my studio. And Oguri also
this which inspires a sense of fear. These works are definitely ‘not
came, to see, with me, how I could paint the moon reflected in wa-
realistic’. This does not mean that Hiramatsu creates imaginary
ter. I placed the panel against the wall and I made sure I could al-
colours, far from it. His palette toys with the simplicity of the
ways see it while I was drawing. I created very many sketches. I re-
monochrome. I would even go as far as saying that he express-
ally thought long and hard about it because this was a scene that
es the true essence of colour. Probably because the artist uses
symbolised the entire film. I heard that they were also going to use
natural pigments, which are commonly used in nihonga. Each
the image for the promotional campaign. As the wood panel was
of these colours is straightforward, and takes advantage of the
part of the props they had applied a dark brown varnish to it to give
specific qualities of each pigment. You could say that Hiramatsu’s
the impression that it was very old. I was familiar with the famous
approach to colour is almost ‘animistic’. Some critics tend to em-
painting on wood panel by Ogata Kôrin, the great artist of the
phasise the ‘baroque’ aspect of Hiramatsu’s work. It is true that
Rimpa School, with the theme ‘Moon and white plum tree’. This
two elements that are typical of the baroque, overabundance
work is exhibited in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington. After
and ornamentation, take a prominent place in his works.
2
giving it a lot of thought – because I wondered how I, Hiramatsu, would paint the moon and a white plum tree – I became convinced
21
If you consider the term ‘ornamentation’ in its strict sense (the act
paintings. Once you have seen one of Oguri’s films, an incredi-
of adorning, of decorating) then the ornaments obtained are just
ble number of pictorial masterpieces, of breath-taking beauty,
annexes, addenda. But this is not at all the case in Hiramatsu’s
will invade your mind. I am a painter and so sometimes, when
work. It is not an exaggeration to say that originally in Japan ‘the
I see these images, I am consumed with jealousy. That is how
act of adorning/decorating’ (kazaru) was almost a religious act.
profoundly beautiful they are. Every image in particular, but also
It therefore has strictly nothing to do, for example, with the
all the images together of his films make up a real collection of
notion of adding lace to curtains to embellish them. But the
artworks which nobody could possibly imitate. That is why – and
Japanese will solemnly ‘decorate’ a statue or a Buddhist temple
I say this as his friend – I am both jealous and proud of the uni-
pavilion. Because the intention is to ‘sanctify’ it and this is not
verse which he succeeds in creating.
an exclusively Buddhist notion. In ancient Shintô (the ‘way of the gods’) all you needed to do was to tie a piece of rice rope (shimena-
Brigitte Koyama-Richard to Oguri Kôhei
wa) around a plot of land to transform it into a sanctuary. On the
Can you share your impressions about the Hiramatsu exhibition
other hand, although this custom is no longer in vogue, until re-
organised by the musée des impressionismes Giverny?
cently in most Japanese homes people decorated the entrance with a kadomatsu (literally, ‘pine on the doors’), made of green
Oguri Kôhei
bamboo and pine branches, as the New Year approached. The
First, let me start by saying that I am certain that this exhibition
idea was to celebrate the ‘place’ destined to herald in the new
will be a magnificent tribute. However I think it would be wrong
year. And so, by directly connecting with an element that is ‘mat-
to only think of this as a tribute to his past work. As if it were a
ter’, you add a spiritual dimension to things. And you raise them to
demonstration of the instant in which Monet encountered Japan
the level of kami (gods who can manifest themselves in any form).
and Japanese painters encountered Impressionism. Because even
This is probably something inherently typical of Japanese culture.
today these encounters between us Asians and you Westerners continue and this conclusion does not only apply to painting.
When people ask me which of Hiramatsu’s works I like
This is also the case for film. Although the origins of ‘cinemato-
best I never know what to answer. Maybe my favourite is ‘Singing
graphy’6 lie in France this does not mean that there is something
Kono michi’ (Kono michi wo utainagara) in the Paths series.
typically French about the films that are made today across the
It won the Grand Prize of Yamatane Museum.4 But I also really like
world. You really need to look at how the melting pot of culture
two other paintings from this same series: The Path with the wet
and history particular to each country works. This exhibition will
soil (Shimetta) and The Path in the Dark (Kurai).
obviously be a landmark in the history of art but it is also the
3
materialisation of the audacious challenge which Hiramatsu set Brigitte Koyama-Richard, to Hiramatsu Reiji
himself.
What attracts you the most in Oguri Kôhei’s films? Hiramatsu Reiji Hiramatsu Reiji
For about twenty years, I conducted research into the relation-
I have had the opportunity to visit many countries around the world
ship between art in Japan and the works of several painters who
but I don’t think that I ever encountered a film style that is similar to
studied Claude Monet, the great master of French Impressionism,
Oguri’s. In short, I think his films are like no other. I think this is prob-
but I also focused more broadly on Japonism.
ably due to the fact that his films are rooted in places that are near to where he lives. That is why the memories that we have of his works
In particular I studied the common points between Japan
do not fade despite the passing of time. Why also his films seep into
and Monet and the French concept of Beauty. And armed with my
the recesses of our hearts only to remain there in their original form,
sketchbooks I followed in Monet’s footsteps to retrace the path
the feeling you have when you discover every one of his films.
he followed as a painter. That’s how I ended up in Giverny, this place in which all of Monet’s interest in Japan is crystallised and
For example I am reminded of a scene in For Kayako, which re-
gathered. I created several paintings in which I literally tried to
ceived the Georges Sadoul Prize. One night the two heroes put
get to the heart of Monet, with the idea that I would one day ex-
5
their ear to the ground to try and hear the sound of the water
hibit these works in Giverny. While being a tribute by a Japanese
flowing in the pipes. I think this is really a magnificent scene and
painter to this great artist, these works were also the outcome
a milestone, both in pictorial and cinematographic terms. There
of an experimental study. The culmination of a dream in fact. At
is simply no equivalent, not even in major
the end of September 2011, meanwhile, Mr Diego Candil, the
22
Director General of the musée des impressionismes Giverny, sent
Brigitte Koyama-Richard
me an official invitation as well as a proper agreement, which set
You and Oguri Kôhei both share a sense of adoration of nature
this project in motion. I never felt such joy during my entire career
and a passionate commitment to colour. This suggests that your
as a painter as I felt in that precise instant. Even though the orig-
respective views of what is Beautiful are quite similar. In short,
inal project had been slightly adapted, this agreement was the
I think you are both on a quest to find universal harmony and
starting point for an event which promises to be both festive and
beauty. What do you think?
historic. a sort of competition bringing together Claude Monet, Hiramatsu Reiji and Japanese ukiyo-e prints in one and the same
Hiramatsu Reiji
venue, through some 120 years of time-space continuum, which
When I paint I always am very attentive to what I see; and I am
will rival each other in terms of beauty. For this project, which
very aware of what is beyond the motif that I want to paint. In
honours my work, I painted works that Monet, if he still lived,
terms of pictorial creation for example, the idea is to strike
would definitely have painted himself – at least that is what
a balance between light and darkness, between clarity and
I think. All the works in the exhibition were created using mate-
obscurity, between lightness and heaviness, between rational
rials and pigments that are traditionally used in Japanese art. For
and irrational. I also give priority to the views on nature and
example on firm papers like mashi or toriko,7 I apply gold, silver or
life which the Japanese have had throughout their long history.
copper that had been previously stretched into thin strips (haku)
I freely extract from this what I sense is the other side of the
or ground to powder – as well as inksticks. I then mix this powder
motif and give it my own personal interpretation. That’s how
(dei) with hide glue (nikawa) before diluting the mixture in water.
I move my work forward. Japanese art and nihonga are closely
These processes are probably entirely unknown in Western coun-
linked to the life of the Japanese. You could even say that this
tries and the same applies to the materials I use. But because
art form is embedded in life. We have always used materials and
these materials are made of natural elements, namely minerals
themes that originate in mountains, forests, water, plants, as well
and plants, I can create works with them that soon create a sense
as in cities and villages, human beings and other living beings.
of intimacy.
All these elements, which are so close to us, have long been considered as the manifestation of ‘everyday beauty’. In the face
That said, the painting technique is slightly different from
of Western rationalism, this type of expression may seem strange.
western painting techniques. There is the lack of perspective, of
But in Japan, the vision of Beauty includes a certain number of
light and darkness, the great freedom of composition, the marked
notions that relate to the motifs themselves: ‘mountains, rivers
contours that are used to accentuate a motif. These are traditional
and plants’ (sansen sômoku), ‘flowers, birds, wind and air’ (kachô
forms of expression, which are specific to Japanese art. Currently
fûgetsu), ‘snow, moon and flowers’ (setsugekka) or even the
most nihonga painters are very influenced by Western painting
aesthetic criteria on which an entire body of work is founded:
styles and while they continue to use traditional materials they
fûga (refinement) or kyôshu (allure), for example. The outcome
tend to focus on perspective. Probably because they like the idea
is a playful universe, which combines the pleasure of what you
of adding a hint of ‘Western style painting’ to their works. As far as
see with what you feel; a world in which every Japanese person
I’m concerned, while I feel that I am somewhat like the custodian
has the power of creation while looking at what surrounds him
of the role played by the ukiyo-e painters and the painters of the
or her. And this, in short, is the art of nihonga. You can find all
Rimpa School in the development of Japanese art between the
these characteristics in Oguri Kôhei’s films, which make up the
seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, I also wish to bridge the
essence of what is Beauty in Japan, and which profoundly inspire
gap between the present and the future. Claude Monet helped
the audience. I think this explains why people love his films so
me to become aware of this. That is why I owe him deep gratitude
much, why they remain indelible, unforgettable. Because in each
and feel the greatest respect for him.
of his films the lead role is played by silence and depth – which however are not emphasised. That is why they are masterpieces which no other filmmaker in the world would be able to make. Oguri Kôhei There are certainly some differences between the pictorial image and the cinematographic image. But I am under the impression that Hiramatsu and I have in common that we refuse to limit ourselves the laws of perspective alone when capturing the
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world. Spatial ‘depth’ (okuyuki, which creates a visual sensation
the a friend’s recommendation, I was introduced to certain
of distance) is undisputedly important in a ‘realistic’ work, but
people at the Institut de France and the Monet Foundation and
sometimes I tend to think that neither he nor I have a sufficiently
was able to frequently visit certain museums of Fine Arts and
strong ‘ego’ to claim that we create realism. Our ‘I’ is too dispersed
Giverny itself where I saw Monet’s gardens. And I experienced
for this and oscillates between all kinds of relationship. The clos-
a burning desire to understand what prompted this artist and
est of these relationships is probably the relation we have with
other Impressionists to rival each other in their ardent desire
nature. However we should not merely think of this as a love of
to study Japonism and create works inspired by this. In short,
nature, or of its beauty. Aren’t the vital things our sensitivity and
what was the meaning of it all? During my frequent travels
the vacillations of our culture which prompt us to use all the be-
between Japan and France I started to gather documentation
haviour of inanimate or animated ‘things’ that make up nature
on the subject and filled a growing number of sketchbooks
as a model? In Hiramatsu’s works there is great beauty and an
with sketches. I then decided to exhibit the 86 works that I had
extreme rigour coupled with generosity as if the ‘breath of life’
created up until then, presenting a summary of my research
endlessly feeds itself and grows. I tell myself that I need to use
to date: 24 screens and 62 paintings, which were exhibited in
this as my inspiration.
1999 in an exhibition in two major galleries associated with the Takashimaya department store in Tôkyô. The title was:
Hiramatsu Reiji
‘A Journey to Impressionism and Japonism: Through the Eyes of
The first time that I travelled to Europe and France I was over fifty
the nihonga Painter Hiramatsu Reiji’.
because before that I primarily travelled to Asian countries. And then finally I was able to have my first solo exhibition in Paris with
This exhibition was hugely successful. At the time of the
the support of a Japanese cosmetics company and an airline. Once
opening the public broadcaster NHK dedicated a story to it and
the opening had ended I followed a friend’s advice and visited the
the then Prime Minister visited the exhibition with his family to
Musée de l’Orangerie. And I experienced a profound shock when
admire my work. This memorable day marked the official start
I saw the famous series of major works which Monet painted
of my journey to Impressionism and Japonism. I then travelled
on the subject of water lilies to the extent that I was so stunned
back and forth between Japan and France and the fruit of my
that I felt paralysed. I spent hours gazing at this wall decoration
work was presented a second and third time in Japan, in public
which unfolds in a horizontal manner, similar to screens.
and private museums as well as in department stores and gal-
I admired the vigour that emanated from these canvases, the
leries. Meanwhile I had painted about 800 works, as I continued
way in which these panels were painted – without any recourse
to conduct my research. I tried to understand from within what
to perspective – the pond, the willows and the lilies, the clarity
happened in the minds of these painters who had participated
of the colours each of which was superbly accentuated, the
in this ‘Japonism’ art movement and what their ideal of Beauty
importance of certain spaces that could be regarded as empty
was. At the same time my own work as a painter allowed me to
and the development over time of this series. And while I gazed
check the significance and value of all this in concrete terms. The
at these works, something happened. Maybe it was an optical
main theme of my research was obviously the vision of Beauty in
illusion but on the other side of these ‘paintings-screens’ I saw
Claude Monet’s work. Initially he painted family scenes and the
the figures of Hokusai and Hiroshige. I should stipulate that I
landscapes of Giverny and Normandy or the flowers and trees
already looked at reproductions of the Water Lilies in the past but
that he planted in his garden. But soon he felt the desire to iden-
I had never been plagued by such visions. I wasn’t that interested
tify the various aspects of beauty that appealed to him in the
in this particular series by Monet. But once I found myself in front
Japanese visual arts: the representation of volume, of space, of
of the originals, the indistinct outlines of great painters of the
phenomena and also of Beauty as a scenic device. So to this end
Edo period suddenly appeared to me as if through the mists of
he acquired land on the other side of the main road and had a
time. From a young age I had always looked at a large number of
small arm of the River Epte diverted to create a pond which would
ukiyo-e and paintings of the Rimpa School. In fact these images
become the heart of his water garden. He decided to shape it like
inspired me. So it is possible that during my first encounter with
the hand mirrors that Japanese women used to love so much so
Monet’s originals I experienced a crossover phenomenon or a
the clouds in the sky would be reflected in it, and the branches
sense of overlap. That said, I was unable to recover completely
of the willows would skim the water, the flowering branches of
from this shock and so I decided, upon my return to Japan, to
the trees along the banks. By conjuring a space in which the re-
stop travelling to Asia for work and plunge headlong into France
ality of nature and the visual – almost cinematographic – effects
and dedicate myself to the study of Japonism. Over time, at
resulting from it intersected with each other, Monet succeeded
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