Kitani (1895-1947) was a great nihonga painter (i.e. one who uses mineral pigments) and teacher who worked tirelessly to teach, nurture, and promote women artists in Japan.
This is a six-panel folding screen, painted on silk. A woman stands looking through a window at a boy inside, who appears to me as if he's not paying attention to her. This was painted just after the death of Kitani's younger brother, expressing her grief and how she misses him. The title comes from a song for the Buddhist Urabon festival, which is sung to welcome ancestral spirits visiting from the afterlife.
The story goes that Seihō was so impressed with a friend's cat that he bought it and photographed it extensively to make this painting. Supposedly it reminded him of a cat painted by the Chinese Song Dynasty emperor Huizong.
This is of the Nihonga school, a style of Japanese painting emphasizing the use of mineral pigments on silk or paper in a traditional Japanese style, as opposed to the growing Western styles that were becoming common in Japan.
Looks almost real, doesn't it? I love how the eyes confront us, even in mid-lick. This cat is taking no chances.
Nearly a quarter-century after its launch, #CentreA : Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art remains the only public art gallery in #Canada that is dedicated to contemporary #AsianArt
Kawase was intent on painting Japan's beauty, not depicting the damage done by the war. The Meiji shrine itself had been destroyed by bombers, but here he depicts the gardens as unspoiled and idyllic. It's also simultaneously modern, as the people here are in modern Western outfits.
For my Non-Scottish International readers, The Fringe is a long-running Arts festival held in Edinburgh that we in Scotland justifiably hold dear, and that Edinburgh residents dread for the way it triples the population of their city every August. ☺️
Now more than ever we need marginalised voices to ring out so please have a look at and share this early entrant to the festivities. Being able to watch them online when they release should hopefully mean a much wider audience.