Shima Seien - "Young Rebel"

Prints in Collection

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BIOGRAPHY

A creator of provocative images of women which asserted, rather than restrained, female sensuality.[1] 

Given name Narue 成栄 (なるえ), Shima Seien 島成園 was born in Sakai City just south of Osaka in February 1892[2]. The family register (koseki) shows she was adopted into her mother's family, surname Suwa 諏訪. Her father Shima Eikichi 島栄吉 and her older brother, given name Ichijirō (1885-1968), were both nihonga style painters.[3] Attending elementary and high school in Sakai, she obtained the usual education for girls focusing on domestic duties and crafts. To what degree she had any formal teaching at home from her father and brother is unclear, but sources suggest they played a supportive role in developing her talent, with her assisting her brother in fan painting.

At the age of thirteen in 1905 her family moved to Shimanouchi, a busy cultural and entertainment district of Osaka. It would be in Osaka that her formal teaching would begin, studying under the nihonga and print artists Kitano Tsunetomi 北野恒富 (1880-1947) and Noda Kyūho 野田九浦 (1879-1971). While her entry into the male dominated art world was aided by the earlier success of the older female painter Uemura Shōen 上村松園 (1875-1949), credited with "legitimizing bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) as a major genre within nihonga," it was her own extraordinary talent, with the required introductions by her teachers, that allowed her entry into the conservative government-sponsored exhibitions that were important vehicles for gaining recognition and commercial success.[4] 

At the age of twenty her painting Evening in Soemon-chō 宗右衛門町の夕, picturing two maiko standing on a street corner, shown below as a reproduction, was accepted for exhibition at the 1912 6th Bunten (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition). The following year her work Festival Attire 祭のよそおい, shown below, was selected, receiving a certificate of merit. While winning recognition and awards for her work exhibited at the Bunten and at department store exhibitions (important venues for the display and sale of work by prominent contemporary artists), notoriety and controversy came with her 1918 self-portrait titled Untitled, pictured and discussed below.

In addition to some critics, even some established male and female artists denounced the work of the emerging young women artists in Osaka and Kyoto. The famous yōga (Western-style oil painting) artist Kishida Ryūsei (1891-1929), best known for his portraiture, singled out Shima in "denouncing the 'women like ghosts' recently on display."[9] Even the female artist Uemura Shōen did not hide her irritation with these younger rivals. In a 1920 magazine article, she remarked, "Nowadays 'Woman Painter' has become a kind of fashion. Everyone is so boasting about herself and is falling into ecstasy, that no one would be able to build her own sanctuary of the fine arts.  Newspapers and magazines irresponsibly praise them and show their unskillful works in photographs and make their heads swell. I cannot find any trace of originalities in works by such young women nowadays, maybe because they have become painters so thoughtlessly." She went on to complain that young artists had emulated her name by taking names ending with "-en."[10]  

In 2008, along with her works Festival Attire (shown above) and Fragrance of Aloeswood (shown below), Untitled was designated as a Municipal Tangible Cultural Property of Osaka (度大阪市指定有形 文化財).[11]

Note on Collection of New Ukiyo-e Beauties (Shin ukiyo-e bijin awase): There is some confusion about this multi-artist series of twelve prints (one representing each month), which appears to have been first published in 1918 and again in 1924, with four prints from the original series deleted and four prints added to replace them. The collection of the National Diet Library, Tokyo holds a complete set of twelve designs from this series which they date to 1918. Shima's above print is part of this 1918 dated series. In the 1924 Shima's print representing the month of July has been replaced by a print by Nakayama Shūko 中山秋湖  (1876-?).  [source: website of Scholten Japanese Art https://www.scholten-japanese-art.com/printsV/759]

Shima's design was re-carved and re-printed c. 1980s by Ishukankokai 遺珠刊行会 as part of the series "Twelve Masterworks of Women" 名品おんな十二題 .

Other woodblock prints designed by the artist (not part of this collection)

The cover and two of the artist's prints from, the book One's Younger Days, New Book of Nishiki-e, volume 4, 1921

新錦絵帖. 4の卷, 処女の頃  (Shin nishikiejō, v4, Shojo no koro)

note: all dimensions approximate

Marriage and Moving

In 1920, at the age of twenty-eight, Shima reluctantly accepted an arranged marriage to Morimoto Toyojirō 森本豊次郎, a bank employee. With her father on his deathbed, her family, concerned about her lifestyle, arranged this marriage without her knowledge. Shima wrote: "I am not sure if a woman like me, whose only life is painting, will be able to live the same life as her husband...although I will try my best to do so."[15]

Her marriage would take her away from her beloved Osaka. Starting in 1924 until after World War II, as her husband's job demanded his presence, she would live in Shanghai, Manchuria, the port city of Dalian in China, Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture and Otaru, Hokkaido.[16]  For a period she would commute back to Osaka from Shanghai, likely via ferry, a two day trip. 

Whether it was her marriage in 1920, or leaving Osaka in 1924, or society's growing conservatism, the tenor of her work began to change after her marriage. Critics' response to her first post-marriage solo exhibition in 1923 at the Osaka Takashimaya Department Store found her work skillful and even beautiful, but also found it "lacking in spirit" and "individuality," hallmarks of her previous work.[17]

Some modern-day art critics have written that Shima lost her "desire to paint such provocative work" because of her marriage and that her style became "bland" after marriage.[18] Others point out that her early provocative works were part of a movement towards Taishō Realism rather than the romanticism associated with earlier times, particularly in the bijin-ga genre, and that losing her edginess in her work corresponded with the shift back to romanticism by many artists at the end of the Taishō era and beginning of Showa.[19] 

In the period between her marriage in 1920 and her return to Osaka in 1946, Seien would continue to submit work to the government sponsored exhibitions, with her work Fragrance of Aloeswood, shown below, picturing an aging oiran (the figure reportedly modeled after her mother), being accepted at the second Teiten exhibition (the follow-on to the Bunten) in 1920 and her work Musical Accompaniment 囃子, shown below as a reproduction, being selected for the 1927 8th Teiten.

[1] Modern Masters of Kyoto: The Transformation of Japanese Painting Traditions, Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection, Michiyo Morioka, Paul Berry, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, p. 23. 

[2] Her given name is also seen romanized (likely incorrectly) as Narie, as it is in A Dictionary of Japanese Artists : Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints, Lacquer, Laurance P. Roberts, Weatherhill, 1976, p. 147 and Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 134. 

[3] Her brother's name is variously given as Issui (The Female Image: 20th Century Prints of Japanese Beauties, Amy Riegle Newland and Hamanaka Shinji, Abe Publishing Ltd and Hotei Publishing, 2000, p. 211),  Shima Gifū 島御風 (likely his artist name) and Ichijirō 市次郎 for his given name. 

[4] Modern Masters of Kyoto, p. 138.

[5] also seen romanized as Chawakai.

[6] review of the 2019 Sakai City Shima Seien Exhibition appearing on the website of Kitanoda Art School located in Sakai City 

[7] "Bewitching, beguiling and downright disturbing: Unconventional views of beauty in Japanese art," Alice Gordenker, The Japan Times online March 19, 2021.

[8] My translation of the artist's comment on the work「痣のある女の運命を呪い世を呪う心持ちを描いた」See: blog, in Japanese, of the Kitanoda Art School

[9] Performing "nation": Gender Politics in Literature, Theater, and the Visual Arts of China and Japan, 1880-1940, ed. Doris Croissant, Catherine Vance Yeh, Joshua S. Mostow, Brill, 2008., p 304, fn76.

[10] The Image of Woman as a National Icon in Modern Japanese Art: 1890s-1930s, Kojima Kaoru, PhD thesis, University of the Arts London, 2006, p. 133, 134. 650322_vol1.pdf (arts.ac.uk); Interestingly, Seien's brother Ichijirō studied under Uemura and  Seien as a girl often visited Uemura's residence. [source: Japan Wikipedia entry for 島成園 , fn 3] 

[11] website of Osaka City https://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/kyoiku/page/0000032428.html

[12] Dangerous Beauties and Dutiful Wives: Popular Portraits of Women in Japan, 1905-1925, Kendall Brown, Dover Publications, Inc., 2011, p. XVI. 

[13]  ibid.

[14] Japan Wikipedia entry fo Shima Seien Japan Wikipedia entry for 島成園 , fn 3]

[15] Full quote is:  "あまり自分にとつては突然のことで結婚に対する総ての用意は勿論、心持さへ人に語ることができません、私の様な女、画を唯一の生命とする女が家庭に入つた時、たとへ力の限り努力はして見ますが夫とぴつたり同じ生活続けていけるかどうか" [Japan Wikipedia entry for 島成園 , fn 12]; Shima’s father passed away in 1921 and her mother in 1930. 

[16] The Year Book OF Japanese Art, 1928, League of Nations Association of Japan. National Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, Tokyo reported Shima's address in Osaka as 47, Nishlkiya-machi, Minami-ku, Osaka. This is likely her last address in Osaka before leaving for Shanghai with her husband.

[17] Osaka Nichinichi April 10, 1923 as quoted in the Japan Wikipedia entry for 島成園

[18] "A Place for Women" by Matthew Larking, November 6, 2008 appearing in The Japan Times online  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/11/06/arts/a-place-for-women/#.VrRtHccvi-I and review of the Osaka Art Museum exhibition Shima Seien, "Naniwa's Female Painter, 50 Years After Her Death" by Kawata Yukari カワタユカリ, September 8, 2020 appearing on the website of the Internet Museum https://www.museum.or.jp/report/99688] 

[19] "Evaluation of the Art of Shima Seien," a reprinting from the exhibition catalog appearing on the E Museum Osaka website https://www.emosaka.com/museum/oosakajilyoseigaka/simaseienn/bijilyutuhilyouka/] 

[20] Tobunken website [https://www.tobunken.go.jp/materials/bukko/9358.html]  

[21] Born 14 years apart, Yosano and Shima likely lived within 500 meters of each other and in 1914 an exhibition at Osaka Daimaru featured both artists. However, it seems that Shima, who was in awe of Yosano, never met her in person. [雑記帖 (Zakki cho) No.253 https://toursakai.jp/zakki/2019/02/10_3021.html]

The Brief Flowering of Taishō Democracy

OVERVIEW

The Taishō era (1912-1926) brought with it the rise of political and cultural liberalism. On the political front representative democracy became more inclusive (though women would not have the right to vote until 1946), labor unions flourished and power further shifted to Japan's Diet, as the ill emperor withdrew from public life. On the cultural front, especially for those in the major urban centers, there was a proliferation of mass market magazines and books, literature clubs flourished, film, theater and cafe-culture blossomed and  a nascent feminist movement arose as more women entered the workforce. It saw the rise of the female urban intellectual epitomized by a group of young women writers known as Seitōsha (Bluestocking Group), formed in 1911 by Hiratsuka Raichō 平塚 らいちょう (1886-1971) who called "out to Japanese women to reclaim their sense of self-worth, reaffirm their creativity, and fulfill their human potential."[1] 

Along with this liberalization, the early Taishō years, overlapping with WWI (1914-1918) in which Japan fought on the side of the Allied Powers, brought an increasing concentration of wealth and power to the zaibatsu (a small number of family-controlled businesses who dominated finance and industry, e.g. Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo) and increasing inflation and joblessness, resulting in growing labor unrest and the traumatic 1918 Rice Riots (米騒動, kome sōdō). This social instability combined with the devastation from the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake provided the opportunity for a power shift to more conservative politicians and the Japanese military and a resurgence of Japanese imperialism. With the passing of the Peace Preservation Law (治安維持法, Chian iji hō) in April 1925 the era of Taishō Democracy was effectively over.

[1] In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist Hiratsuka Raichō, Raichō Hiratsuka, translated with an introduction and notes Teruko Craig, Columbia University Press, 2006, p. VII.

[2] Modern Masters of Kyoto The Transformation of Japanese Painting Traditions, Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection, Michiyo Morioka and Paul Berry, Seattle Asian Art Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, p. 23.

[3] ibid. all quoted material

[4] "Changing Images of Women: Taisho Period Paintings by Uemura Shoen (1875-1949), Ito Shoha (1877-1968), and Kajiwra Hisako (1896-1988)," Morioka Michiyo, PhD diss , University of Washington, 1990, p. 243.

[5]"A Place for Women" by Matthew Larking  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/11/06/arts/a-place-for-women/#.VrRtHccvi-I

[6] Op. cit. Changing Images of Women. p. 237.

Representative Artist Signatures and Seals

Shima Seien's signature appears on her work as a scripted rendering of the characters 成園 making up her artist name Seien. Her signature appears either with or without a seal, most of which contain the same characters 成園 in seal script form. 

Recent Exhibitions