history: a short story of 1970s.

Tomatsu Shomei, Untitled from the series Protest, Tokyo, 1969

Performance art along with the students' riots was an integral part of the urban fabric in the late 1960s. The so called angura (short for underground) presenting plays full of politics and sexual perversions was in full bloom. It was ruled by Tenjo Sajiki Theatre founded by Terayama Shuji and Red Tent, founded by Kara Juro. Sometimes the butoh dance, pioneered by Hijikata Tatsumi in 1959, spilled out onto the streets from the dance halls. 

Hosoe Eiko, Kamaitachi sakuhin, no.5, 1968

This emergence of performance art as the primary means of expression for the avant garde artists had been documented by Nagano Chiaki in his recently unearthed film Some Young People. Produced right before 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the film shows a typical work day in Tokyo at different times of the day with the background music of the popular song, Shiawase nara te o tatakou (If you're happy and you know it clap your hands). Though it may seem that the film depicts peaceful and happy times brought by Japan's remarkable postwar economic boost, it is filled with ant-institutional subversive messages conveyed by young artists, who detested the shallow everyday happiness and attempted to disrupt it with their guerilla performances. The film features some forgotten performances by Ono, Neo Dada, Zero Jingen and Sightseeing Art Research Institute (Nakamura Hiroshi and Tateishi Koichi) which were organized as a series of outdoor and indoor exhibitions titled Off Museum. Continue reading

Zero Jigen, Crawling Ritual, still form Nagano Chiaki Some Young People, 1964

An exploration of 'outside' the museum continued on either collective or individual basis. A series of memorable projects were produced by The Play, an Osaka-based collective led by Ikemizu Keiichi, whose annual summer projects included Voyage: Happening in the Egg in 1968 (throwing a gigantic fibre glass into the Pacific Ocean hoping it reaches American coast), Current of Contemporary Art in 1969 (travelling downstream from Kyoto to Osaka on a Styrofoam raft), Sheep in 1970 (walking with the heard of sheep from Kyoto to Osaka), Ie: Play have a house (1972) and Thunder that began in 1977, the same year Walter de Maria created his Lighting Field.

The Play, Voyage: Happening in the egg, 1968

The Play, Current of Contemporary Art, 1969, photo by Higuchi Shigeru, Courtesy of Ikemizu Keiichi

The Play, Ie: Play have a house, 1972

Somewhere in the middle of the decade, the object-based works of Anti-Art, which emerged in Japan in late 1950s. and thrived in early 1960s., was replaced now by Non-Art, which lasted throughout the decade and whose credo was: not making. That new tendency was typically pursued by the artists of conceptualism, Mono-ha and Bikyoto.

Significant artistic, cultural and social events seemed to culminate in 1970. During two weeks in May of 1970, visitors to Tokyo Biennale titled Between Man and Matter held in Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum encountered an unexpected view, there was not much to look at even though the exhibition presented works of forty artists from America, Europe and Japan. And it was not that nothing was on view, although two rooms were actually empty, one of which titled My Own Death by the pioneering Japanese conceptual artist Matsuzawa Yutaka, but that art had changed significantly.

Matsuzawa Yutaka, My own death, 1970

Kawara On, Today, Jan.1st-Mar.31, 1970

Katsuhiko Narita, Sumi 7-22, 1970

Horikawa Michio, The Nakanomata River Plan-13, 1970

Takamatsu Jiro, Sixteen Onenesses, 1970

In the same year Osaka, second largest city after Tokyo, hosted Expo'70, which drew Metabolist architects and numerous artists on international stage. At the same time Japan witnessed yet again a flare of anti-govermental protests, incited by second renewal of ANPO treaty, as evocatively captured by late photographer Tomatsu Shomei in his series Protests, Tokyo. On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his private militia entered the headquarters of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces trying to persuade them to restore military imperialism and when his plan failed he committed seppuku concluding the turbulent 1960s. with a spectacular death.

history: a short story of 1960s.

Postwar Japan was a place of precipitous urban growth. The most essential problem that emerged was how to distribute or enlarge territory for human settlements, which number increased from 3.5 million people in 1945 to 9.5 million in 1960. This is when Kenzo Tange propose his Plan for Tokyo, and when young architects coming from his lab at Tokyo University, who later transform into Metablists think of projects such as Marine City or City in the Air. 

Kenzo Tange presents Plan for Tokyo on TV in 1960

By the turn of the decade traditional mediums such as paintings, drawing and print were replaced by new tendencies and new generation of artists who emerged during Yomiuri Independent Exhibition (Yomiuri Anpan for short) - named after the newspaper company that sponsored it - held annually in Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from 1949 through 1963 and was admirably democratic in format.

The 10th edition of Anpan in 1958 featured core members of new generation - incuding Akasegawa Genpei, Arakawa Shusaku, Shinohara Ushio, Yoshimura Masunobu, Miki Tomio and Kudo Tetsumi. Many of these artist would be associated with the groups such as Neo-Dada and Hi Red Center, and were part of a larger tendency known as Anti-Art. Though they had few stylistic or formal commonalities, the works by these artist incorporated everyday objects, which soon became their signature feature and gained them the "junk anti-art" name.

Akasegawa Genpei, Sheets of Vagina (Second Present) 1961,
vacuum tube, car tire inner tube, hubcap, and wood,
courtesy MoMA

Kudo Tetsumi Philosophy of Impotence,
or Distribution Map of Impotence and
Rise of Protection Dome at the Saturation Point,
1961-62, plastic bowls, paper, cotton, plastic, polyester, duct tape, light bulbs, string and magazine pages,
courtesy MoMA

Ushio Shinohara, Coca Cola Plan, 1964,
paint, glass, plaster, metal fittings, wood,
courtesy MoMA

Nakanishi Natsuyuki, Clothespins Assert Churinig Action,
1963, clothing and clothepins on canvas,

courtesy MoMA

 


The 1960s opened with massive demonstrations against the renewal of United States-Japan Security  Treaty known as ANPO. The highly controversial pack reinforced Japan's unequal partnership with its former enemy and prolong the stationing of US forces on the archipelago. In the following years, Japan had its share of student uprisings and anti-Vietnam War rallies. The street of Tokyo during this time were not only a site for political protests. Artists also made use of the city's public space as their own forum for radical actions and events.

In 1960s. art was distinctly anti-institutional. Ati-Art (Han-geijutsu) made concentrated effort to critique, subvert, and dismantle the art system, which echoed the politically turbulent atmosphere. Their anti-institutional radicalism went as far as to contribiting to the demise of the only stage for their works at the time - Yomiuri Anpan. In the aftermath of the Yomiuri Anpan's termination, avant-garde seek out alternative sites of operation. An urge for action inspired artists to wander into the streets as well as unconventional indoor venues, such as public bath.

Zero Jigen,
Bathing Ritual in Full Dress, 1964

For several years artists regularly gathered in Sogetsu Art Center headquarters of ikebana school led by Teshigahara Hiroshi to listen to jazz and to mingle with visitors from abroad. Between 1961 and 1964 John Cage, Merce Cunningham, David Tudor and Robert Rauschenberg all made intensely noticed appearances, joined by a handful of Asian artists — Yoko Ono, Nam Jun Paik and the composer Shiomi Mieko — who would become associated with Fluxus.

No one anticipated the visit of American triumvirate Cage-Cunningham-Rauschenberg with more eagerness than Shinohara Ushio, former member of Neo-Dada group. Known throughout art scene for his signature Mohawk haircut and declaration that imitating the works of other artists (in his case mostly American including Rauschenberg himself) was far more interesting, and even revolutionary than creating original works.

Although the Sogetsu Art Center existed until 1972, its character changed significantly after 1964.

Akasegawa Genpei, 1.000- Yen-Note Trial, 1963

The year 1964 marked a critical turning point in society at large for Japan. It was, for one thing the year in which the nation hosted the summer Olympics, decisively announcing its place on the international arena. The same year brought the start of a radically changed relationship between arts and culture and politics. The shift was manifested most strikingly by so-called Model 1,000- Yen-Note Incident, which befell Akasegawa Genpei who made a body of works based on the image of the thousand-yen note. Soon after he was investigated for copying the bills, and his wrapped objects and other money based works were confiscated. The following year he was accused of counterfeit and after a long trial finally convicted in 1967.

The example made out of Akasegawa speaks to the metamorphosis of Japan and Japanese state during this period.

Adapted from Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde exhibition catalogue.

history: a short story of 1950s.

On the occasion of the exhibition Tokyo 1955-1970: A new Avant-Garde, which has just opened in MoMA, I enrolled for the Japanese Post-war Art course, bits and pieces of which I'll share in the following posts.

Kojima Nobuaki, Untitled, 1964/66, lacquer on polyester

Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers on August 15, 1945 after atomic booms were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However in anticipation of the Cold War, United States, hoping to have Japan as an ally, supported its recovery from the post-war chaos, which resulted in the remarkably swift reconstruction. In 1951, after signing San Francisco Peace Treaty and Security Treaty with U.S. (ANPO), Japan reappeared on the international scene, as well as in global art community participating for the first time in Venice Biennale. This participation however revealed that the pre-war system of art, which had been restablished after the war was anachronistic. The pre-war system consisted of the two co-existing genres: nihon-ga (Japanese style painting) and yoga (Western style painting) and each was represented by the selected artist based on seniority. In contrast other countries were promoting new promising talents with the clear-cut and creative ideas.

The art circles in Japan that succeeded the pre-war one were isolated not only from the global scene but also from reality of their own war devastated country except few artists who belonged to little-know genre called reportage painting represented in the exhibition by Ikeda Tatuso, Ishii Shigeo, Nakamura Hiroshii and Yamashita Kikuji. Reportage painting was an extension of Surrealism which thrived in Japan in 1930s.

Yamashita Kikuji, Totems, 1951, oil on canvas, courtesy MoMA

By mid-1950s. though paintings has shifted towards more abstract forms. As in Ay-O's Pastoral which shows torsos and limbs in yellow, as if giving form to the homogenization, dehumanizing force of standardization that turns individuals into army of workers, toiling for prosperity in the postwar brave new world.

AY-O, Pastoral, 1956, oil on panel, courtesy MoMA

Also in mid-1950s, the Japanese art world witnessed significant shift in generation.

The most notable phenomenon of those time was Jikken Kobo (Experimental Workshop), which consist of 14 young artists, musicians, writers as well as engineers who came together around an influential critic Takiguchi Shuzo. The group was highly interested in combining art and technology, in reflection of the increasing industrialization and modernization of post-war Japan. Works on view includes Matusmoto Toshio's short film Ginrin (Bicycle in the Dream), which I have already covered on this blog.

Murakami Saburo, Paper breaking, 1956

Another group of 17 young enterprising artists, mostly painters gather around Yoshihara Jiro, formed in 1954 Gutai Art Asscostiantion. Their first exhibition as a group was called Experimental Outdoor Modern Art Exhibition to Challenge the Midsummer Sun, was held in the pine forest in July of 1955. Although based in Western Kansai, the group self-organized its exhibitions and stage performances also in Tokyo. Gutai is best known for it's members actions, such as Shiraga Kazuo's Challanging Mud, Tanaka Atsuko Electric Dress or Murakami Saburo's Paper Breaking. The sporadically published Gutai journal - tightly edited and designed and generously filled with reproductions and writings by group members were distributed both in Japan and outside securing them much desired recognition in the international scene.

yokai

Yokai are monstrous creatures prevalent in Japanese folklore, mythology, and indigenous animism. They appear in many shaps, forms and identities, typically portrayed as grotesque ghouls. At times, some invisible phenomenon, which could be perhaps a fabrication of the awe-struck mind, encountering Nature. These enigmatic beings are unique and strange iconographic figures that span several epochs of Japanese history. They have been depicted in the picture scrolls as early as 12c. and seem to resurface during important periods in Japan's history.

However for many people, word yokai calls up images of the rampaging creatures in scroll paintings and woodblock prints of the Edo Period, this fantastic realm is not merely a relict of the past. Even now they continue to be extremely popular characters in Japanese pop culture, showing up in literature, manga and animation. My first encounter with yokai was through the collection of Yumoto Koichi, a yokai researcher who over a period of 30 years mount a collection of 3,000 items, which a small portion was presented at Yokohama Triennale last year and ever since have been haunting my imagination.

All the images are coming from the Yokai Manga published by Seigensha. Happy Halloween!