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

How-to-paint Books

The selection of traditional painting manuals (gafū) with images to be used for copying practice and more recent largely text based how-to-paint books at the Taiwan Government General Library speaks to the educational aspirations of the library. The subsection of the 812 Japanese and Chinese Painting dedicated to painting techniques had 13 books in 1917, and by 1927 acquired additional 15. Among them were two Japanese translations of the widely renowned Chinese painting manual from the early Qing dynasty, Kaishien gaden (En. Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, Ch. Jieziyuan Huazhuan), as well as three different “How to paint nihonga” books by contemporary Japanese artists. The increase appears modest, yet it does suggest a steady interest.

Similarly, the 814 Western Painting section had a total of 13 technique-related books in 1917, and acquired additional 23 by 1927. Their subject matter ranged from how to paint in oils, watercolor, pencil drawing, and crayon, to how to handle composition, human figure, and landscape. The library owned Yamamoto Kanae's extremely popular Aburae no egakikata (How to paint in oil), as well as two publications by the renowned watercolor artist, long-term resident of Taiwan, and exhibition juror, Ishikawa Kin'ichirō: Shasei shinsetsu (New text on sketching, 1914), and Shindai gajutsu (Painting techniques for the new times, 1926). Many prominent artists in Japan and some artists of the middle ranks penned how-to-paint books. This activity must have provided additional income and was an extension of their work as art instructors in public schools and private ateliers.

How-to-paint books made artistic knowledge more accessible and targeted a range of audiences. Some explained the basics to amateur painters in pursuit of hobby and pleasure. Others catered to young aspiring artists, giving advice on the development of an artistic career and the steps necessary to establish oneself professionally. Yet others provided highly technical information about pigments and painting techniques relevant to professional artists. Overall, these how-to-books were largely text based and focused on advice. They did feature some reproductions or a few drawings, yet they did not include workbook-like materials for a hands on practice. The authors seemed aware of the limitations of the book medium in artistic transmission and thus focused on encouragement and explaining practical matters, such as necessary equipment or what constituted basic drawing skills and subject matter.

A pamphlet published on the occasion of the Library Week at the Taiwan Government General Library in 1932, Saikin ōku yomareta ryōsho 200-shu (Selection of 200 popular books), suggests that how-to books were especially popular among the library's users. Except for Tōyō bijutsu no chishiki (Knowledge of Eastern art) and Sankō sekai bijutsu yomihon seiyō hen (Reference reader in world art: Volume on Western art), all other positions listed in the arts section were how-to books on the various techniques of printing, sketching, oil painting, and photography, headed by Ōta Saburō's Aburae no egakikata (How to Paint in Oil).

These Japanese language how-to-paint books helped popularize in the colonies new (some would say “modern”) worldviews regarding artistic professionalization, such as the importance of attending an art school and establishing a stellar exhibition participation record. By doing so, they must have brought into sharp relief the limited opportunities for artists in Taiwan in comparison to metropolitan Japan. Also, even as the how-to-books often focused on one specific technique or medium, overall they reinforced the conceptual categorization of painting into nihonga and seiyōga in accordance with the recent custom in Japan. The putatively universal image of the artistic profession had in fact implicit imperial geography (see also Holca 2016, 68).

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Career Guides
In general, painters in Japan in the first half of the twentieth century specialized in one of the two modes of painting: nihonga and seiyōga. The distinction between the two modes was based on the medium, painterly technique, and the presumed set of traditions and masters each mode was indebted to, not on the nationality of the painter or the subject matter of the work.
By the early 1920s, the knowledge of artistic professionalization became codified and made available in how-to-paint books and career guidebooks for aspiring artists. Such publications propagated painting as a modern career that one could pursue by studying artworks in reproduction and in original, by receiving direct instruction at an art school, and by networking.
For example, painter Nakagawa Kigen (1892-1972) and art critic Yokogawa Kiichirō (1895-1973) co-authored a specialized guide entitled Bijutsuka o kokorozasu hito no tame ni (For People Aspiring to Become Artists). Published in 1933, it belonged to the Gendai shokugyō gaido bukku (Guide Books to Modern Professions) series, which included guides on how to become a journalist, musician, writer, pilot, filmmaker, business executive, lawyer, beautician, working woman, and soldier. The book emphasized how art education and a stellar exhibition record constituted the two key paths to establishing oneself as a professional artist.
Bijutsuka o kokorozasu hito no tame ni outlined four methods of studying oil painting, listed according to their desirability and effectiveness: entering an art school, entering an oil painting research studio, receiving individual instruction, and studying from books. The authors indicated that the last method was least effective. However they considered it an option for people who were unable to pursue any of the other three methods. They also suggested that the last option was less desirable in the case of nihonga because of its difficult technique and so the authors strongly encouraged aspiring artists to seek other options beyond studying books (Nakagawa and Yokogawa 1933, 159.).
Ishino Takashi's (1897-1967) Shuppin kara nyūsen made (From Submission to Acceptance at an Exhibition, 1934), and Zenkoku bijutsuten shuppin annai (The Nationwide guide to participation in exhibitions, 1942) provided detailed guidance on successful exhibition participation. The author explained the characteristics of each exhibition and advised potential participants to submit their work to the exhibition with the best fit. He suggested that the work should attract attention of jurors and future audiences by making a lasting impression. He also advised perseverance, as one's work would typically be rejected two or three times before finally securing acceptance.
According to Ishino, artists should create a good working environment by visiting exhibitions and collecting reproductions from art magazines and materials that might make good sources for still lifes. When learning how to paint, artists should engage in critically evaluating their own works, practice painting on a large-sized canvas that one would use to submit to an exhibition, send their work by post to receive a critique through mail (tsūshin hihyō), join a group of fellow painters, and inform themselves about the art establishment. He also suggested that it was possible for a self-taught oil painter to exhibit in any art society, in contrast to nihonga painters, who would typically exhibit only with a group of their artistic affiliation. Having introduced the most important developments in oil painting over the past twenty years, such as fauvism, cubism, futurism, expressionism, abstraction, and constructivism, he strongly advised against blindly copying any of these styles. He stated that painting was akin to science (kagaku/saiensu) and also entailed individual expression. Overall, the author balanced between not imposing anything on the painters while pointing them towards the type of painting that would be accepted at exhibitions.
Ishino's two books were aimed at empire-wide audiences. Shuppin kara nyūsen made directly addressed instructors of drawing and encouraged them to participate in art exhibitions to reap the benefits, such as consolidating one's reputation, having a motivational impact on one's own students, achieving personal cultivation, and gaining an opportunity to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of one's own work in comparison to others on display. The author often addressed the particular situation of artists and art instructors living in the provinces (chihō), for example, by providing detailed information on transport companies that handled artwork for submission to exhibitions. Although the scope of the provinces was left unsaid in his first book, the second book included a typology of exhibitions with official salons in Seoul and Taipei discussed under "regional exhibitions" (chihōten). The book provided a short history of the two salons and reprinted an excerpt of their respective regulations pertaining to eligibility requirements. Clearly, the author recognized that his readership extended to the empire.
The Modern Still Life
A corner “Readers' Assignment” (Dokusha kadai) in the art journal Bijutsu (Fine Arts), features a request submitted purportedly from a reader in Korea “Mr. KM” (KM sei): “I want to see somebody painting a still life. Can you show me a photograph (of an artist painting a still life) please?” The magazine editors responded by featuring a photograph of Watanabe Kōzō (1897-1980) in his atelier with an advice from the artist about his painting process (“Dokusha kadai” 1939). At the time, Watanabe had already established a great exhibition record at the official salon in Tokyo with his still lifes.
Still life came to embody modern life with its cosmopolitan consumer print culture and the basic process of learning how to paint. In his Aburae no egakikata (How to paint in oil), Ōta Saburō (1884-1969) described a still life as the “ABCs” for a beginning painter, suggesting that by learning how to paint a mere vase, one could learn how to paint anything (Ōta 1930, 53). He explained the basics of form, color, shading, and composition and then proceeded to describe the conventional subject matter of still lifes, such as flowers, fruit, and fish, concluding with a section on incorporating other utensils (kibutsu):
Get paints and a solvent in an art supply shop, then go to a bookstore and buy a magazine, drink black tea in a café, and read the evening newspaper on your way home on the train. You will have a still life ready by the morning of the next day. Ōta Saburō, Aburae no egakikata (Ōta 1930, 122).
By carefully picking and choosing, the painter could creatively enhance the conventional still life repertoire with objects hinting at his (more often his than hers) modern lifestyle and perform his artistic persona through the work.
By the late 1920s, Japanese language art magazines such as Atorie (Atelier), Yōga kenkyū (Research in Western painting), Zōkei geijutsu (Plastic arts), and Bijutsu (Fine arts) began to appear as a motif in a number of still lifes on display at the official salons in Seoul and Taipei. The emergence of such still lifes paralleled the increase of imported magazines into the two colonies, as well as their availability in the official libraries and private hands, as artists assembled their own private collections of books, art journals, and images. For example, Kim Chunghyŏn's Still Life from the twelfth Korea Fine Arts Exhibition features an interior with a desk, fruit, a wine bottle, and bread. Popped on the chair in the lower right is a special issue of the pictorial weekly magazine Asahi gurafu (Asahi Graph), dedicated to the Imperial Fine Arts Exhibition.
Similarly, Pan Li-Shui’s (1914-1995) “Painting Implements” (Gagu) on view at the fifth Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition (1931) references this intra-imperial circulation of artistic knowledge by depicting a traditional album, exhibition catalogues, and sketchbooks. In particular, the catalogues of the fourth Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition (1930) and the eleventh Imperial Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition (1930), with their distinct covers, feature prominently in this work, propped to the left of the jar holding brushes. (For a more detailed description of this work see Liao 2002, 219.) They also hint at the position of the artist at the crossroads of the Japanese and the Taiwanese art worlds as well as at the role of public art exhibitions in securing professional recognition.

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