Kitano Tsunetomi (北野恒富) (artist early 1880s - mid 1940s)

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Biography:

"Painter and print artist. Tsunetomi ended his life well known as a painter in the 'Nihonga' style, but his original training was in the business of woodblock printing. Born in Kanazawa, he went to Osaka in 1892 and was apprenticed to Nishida Suketaro, who was a preparer of 'hanshita-e', the final drawings used when cutting the blocks for woodblock prints. He also studied 'Nanga'-style painting, sculpture and woodblock carving under various teachers before joining the carving section of the 'Hokkoku shinpo' newspaper in 1897, where he was able to study newspaper illustrations; but he soon returned to Osaka to study painting under Inano Toshitsune, a minor artist who was in a line from the 'Ukiyo-e' school. From him he adopted the 'Tsune' element in his art name, and absorbed a style of painting beautiful women which was a transition between 'Ukiyo-e' and 'Nihonga'. Inano made him work as a woodblock cutter. He published the first of his illustrations for serialised novels in an Osaka journal. While earning his living in this way, he continued to paint and first exhibited in the government-sponsored Bunten show in 1910. In 1912 he helped set up the Taisho Art Society devoted to the encouragement of child artists and in 1915 the Osaka Art Society, at which he became a regular exhibitor. In 1917 he was elected to the Japan Art Institute, and thereafter remained a regular exhibitor at official exhibitions. In 1934 he was invited to contribute wall-paintings to the Shotoku Memorial Painting Hall in the Meiji Shrine, Tokyo.

Tsunetomi's subject-matter was usually beautiful women from the world of entertainment and fashion in the Osaka area, and his work is important as a record of that way of life. Many of his paintings are rescued from the common sentimentality of the period by a gritty edginess which is not unlike the early prints of Ito Shinsui (q.v.). He designed few sheet-prints, and all of them seem to have been adapted from earlier paintings. His best-known print is 'Sagimusume' (Heron Maiden), published in 1925. Tsunetomi was an important figure in Osaka art circles, teaching many pupils, including the painter and print designer Shima Seien (1892-1970)."

The information provided above was from a biographical profile of this artist at the British Museum.

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"Kitano Tsunetomi 'loved women just as he loved flowers,' recalled his granddaughter. For his portrayal of seductive women, he was once compared to Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693), a great Osaka novelist who wrote stories of amorous women. One of the celebrated bijin-ga painters in modern Nihonga, Tsunetomi was regarded as the leading master of the Osaka art world in his lifetime. Yet many aspects of his early development as an artist, his relations with Kyoto painters, and the role he played in nurturing the following generation of Osaka artists have remained obscure.

Born in Kanazawa, the 'little Kyoto' facing the Japan Sea, Tsunetomi apprenticed at local wood-block printing shops between 1892 and 1895. He worked for Nakayama Komatarō, a wood-block carver in 1897 but moved to Osaka the next year to study with Ineno Toshitsune, a former pupil of Mizuno Toshikata. In 1899, around the time he started publishing his illustrations in the monthly paper Shin-Nihon (New Japan), he also began studying yōga. Tsunetomi was possibly involved in the yōga circles in Kyoto: while his involvement with the Heigo Painting Society (Heigo Gakai), a group of Kyoto Nihonga painters who studied yōga under the influential oil painter Asai Chū (1856-1907), is not certain, it is known that he participated in the 1912 exhibition of Le Masque, an assembly of younger Kyoto painters both in Nihonga and yōga that included Tsuchida Bakusen and Ono Chikkyō. The sense of realism achieved in his early works demonstrates his understanding of the styles and techniques of oil painting.

Working as a successful newspaper illustrator, Tsunetomi emerged as an innovative bijin-ga artist toward the very end of the Meiji period. During the early Taishō, he became known for his paintings of geisha and courtesans in the lineage of ukiyo-e, as represented by Feeling Warm, 1915... Tsunetomi's women openly project an erotic power and a vulnerability. His 1913 work based on The Love Suicides at Amijima (Shinjū Ten no Amijima, 1721) by the Osaka playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), 'extremely suggestive,' in the painter's own words, was rejected by the government-sponsored Bunten. Kaburaki Kiyotaka, while characterizing his own subjects as 'women of the morning,' described Tsunetomi's as 'women of the night, embraced by the dark shadow of dissolute pleasures.' In his portrayal of feminine sensuality as human reality and his attention to yōga figure style, of the Kyoto 'decadants'....

After Tsunetomi became a full member of the Japan Art Institute (Nihon Bijutsu-in) in 1917, his work significantly changed. Lady Chacha, 1921... an imaginary portrait of a historical figure, imparts a sense of idealism both in theme and style and offers a striking contrast to his earlier work. Even in the representations of women typically derived from ukiyo-e themes, Tsunetomi focused on refinement and elegance rather than the lively human quality of his subjects. Many Kyoto artists voiced their concern and bewilderment: one in particular expressed his disappointment by saying that Tsunetomi's new style had lost its sensual charm and vigor, the very qualities which had defined his work as the product of an Osaka artist.

In time, Tsunetomi's painting reached a phase of maturity characterized by a new sense of balance and freedom. During the Shōwa period, when he regularly participated in the Institute's exhibitions, some of his works recapture a sense of vigor and through bold composition and luxurious colors while others achieve an expression of thoughtful restraint.

Tsunetomi made a distinct contribution as the first Nihonga artist from Osaka to achieve national fame. His success and presence brought attention to Osaka as a modern artistic community for the first time. Themes from the earlier literary tradition and history of Osaka are evident in Tsunetomi's oeuvre, demonstrating his awareness of the unique regional culture. His juku, Hakuyo-sha, flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, nurturing many Osaka artists of the following generation, including Shima Seien (1892-1970) and Nakamura Teii (1900-1982)."

Quoted from: Nihonga: Transcending the Past, entry by Michiko Morioka, pp. 309-310.

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Scholten Japanese Art wrote: "Although Kitano Tsunetomi was born in Kanazawa, he moved to Osaka as a young man where he would establish himself as a leading master of bijin-ga, and in his own lifetime, earn recognition as the first Nihonga artist from Osaka. He began his artistic career from 1892 to 1895 as an apprentice at woodblock printing shops in his hometown. In 1897 he worked for the carver Nakayama Komataro, before moving to Osaka in 1898 to study with the painter and print designer Ineno Toshitsune (1858-1907), a former pupil of Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908). In 1899 he began publishing illustrations in the monthly Shin-Nihon ('New Japan') while he also began studying yoga (Western-style painting).

During the first two decades of the new century, Tsunetomi emerged as a leading bijin-ga painter and illustrator. His early work was particularly distinctive; while many artists of this period were portraying women as relatively sweet and innocent, Tsunetomi's beauties were infused with a compelling combination of mysterious sexuality and realistic vulnerabilities. He began self-publishing prints in 1918, starting with the four oban bijin-ga in the Seasons of the Pleasure Quarters set. A denizen of the floating world himself, Tsunetomi was an ardent fan of kabuki. This circa 1925 print, depicting a famous kabuki role, The Heron Maiden, is his grandest and most famous bijin-ga."