Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

Exhibition Fever

From the early 1920s onward, newspapers in Japan began highlighting the so-called “newcomer” artists (shinjin) and those who had received their first acceptance at the exhibition (hatsu nyūsen). Many young artists must have held their breath as they crowded outside of the museum to catch a peek at the list announcing the selected names and the titles of the admitted works. Within a few hours, the names of admitted artists were announced on the radio and published the next day in all major daily newspapers. Art career guidebook writer Ishino Takashi (1897-1967) described how these artists would hear with excitement their name on the radio, have journalists arrive at the door, and receive greetings from acquaintances exclaiming “Congratulations!” when randomly met on a train (Ishino, Shuppin kara nyūsen made, 108).

As the acceptance at a major exhibition became a decisive moment in a career of an aspiring artist, "exhibition intoxication” (tenrankai kaichūdokushō) befell the young generation. This term was coined by the established artists, who cautioned the younger artists against "losing themselves" for the sake of the exhibition (Ishino Takashi, Zenkoku bijutsu tenrankai annai (Tokyo: Geijutsu Gakuin, 1942), 115.). For example, painter Ishii Hakutei (1882-1958) encouraged aspiring artists to take art seriously and not to aim at only the benefits resulting from participation in exhibitions (See afterword to Ishino’s book. Ishino, Shuppin kara nyūsen made, 143-45.). Elsewhere, painter Arishima Ikuma noted that aspiring painters submitted their works to exhibitions after only two or three years of study and then became very disappointed and would stop painting when rejected (Arishima Ikuma, Bijutsu no aki (Tokyo: Sōbunkaku, 1920), 44.). In the eyes of the senior artists, the excitement of having one’s work displayed at a public exhibition got in the way of the serious attitude towards studying art.

Soon, a small industry developed catering to aspiring artists. Art supply companies such as Ōsama shōkai began organizing correspondence courses and in-person instruction under the guidance of exhibition jurors (Add ref to my Tano zemi ronbunshu article). They also provided a special delivery service for artists living outside of the metropolitan area and aiming to submit their works to a juried exhibition. By securing discreet transport and submission to juried art exhibitions, they protected the name of the artists in case their work was rejected (Yoshida, Teikoku kaiga hōten: 316. Ishino Takashi, Shuppin kara nyūsen made (Tokyo: Gakkō Bijutsu Kyōkai Shuppanbu, 1934), 99.). The stakes were high.

Little research exists on the artists’ use of such delivery services. Based on the exhibition catalogues, we can gauge that the number of artists living outside of the metropolitan area participating in the official salon in Tokyo grew only slowly in the prewar period. This research is made complicated by the fact that some artists moved to Tokyo temporarily and submitted their works under a Tokyo address, and so the number of participants from Tokyo is possibly inflated. However, it is clear that art supply companies, which also targeted children and schools, were well positioned to early recognize this new demand and to step in and provide delivery and educational services extending well beyond Tokyo. (For information on how an individual painter, Komuro Suiun, established in 1932 a painting correspondence course for amateurs in Japan and its colonies see chapter six of: dissertation Rhiannon Paget, State of the Art and Art of the State, 2015). 

With the establishment of the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition (1927) and first Taiwanese-Chinese artists accepted to the official salon in Japan (oil painter Chen Chengbo, 1926), exhibition fever also affected artists active in Taiwan. For a detailed discussion of exhibition fever there, see The Three Youths of the Taiwan Salon.

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