Model works
Sketching from nature and studying important works from the past constituted the two key methods of acquiring painting skills for both nihonga and seiyōga painters in early twentieth-century Japan (Compare: Fujishima Takeji, Geijutsu no esupuri, (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2004), 221-22). Exhibition jurors, established artists, and authors of advice books for aspiring artists emphasized that the study of masterpieces through copying constituted part of the learning process, yet in the end, each artists should aim to develop their own original expression.
Looking at original paintings and experiencing their size, color, and texture required access to private collections or visiting temporary art exhibitions. The Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Japan Art Association (Nihon bijutsu kyōkai) frequently included such “models” (sankōhin) in their exhibitions for study purposes.
Moreover, Japanese settler-artists in Korea and Taiwan, colonial bureaucrats, and artists in the metropole believed that representative examples of modern Japanese art could guide artists in the colonies. Such demands stimulated the formation of the modern canon of Japanese art. The first Korea Fine Arts Exhibition and Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition featured a small selection of Japanese paintings on loan from Tokyo as “models” with the goal of educating local artists and the art public. Painter, art instructor, and long-term resident of Taiwan, Ishikawa Kin’ichirō (1871-1945), described his emotional experience of viewing these works at the first official salon in Taiwan:
Some models, such as Araki Jippo’s painting (CAN I GET A REPRODUCTION?), left such a lasting impression that critics recalled it years later in their reviews (ADD REF). The technical virtuosity of this most renowned bird-and-flower artist at the salon must have appealed to contemporary viewers.The models displayed are an oasis of art for art connoisseurs and the study of [art]. Having come in contact with these fine works, I feel that art by great masters draws you in without effort, just like that, quietly, like the gentle flow of water. It feels like being completely embraced by serenity (ADD REF).
For the subsequent Taipei salons, the organizers abandoned the practice of organizing a special display. Instead, they encouraged the invited jurors from Japan to bring their own works for the purpose of displaying them as "models." The Japanese language press often advertised in advance the subject matter and size of the jurors’ works and, upon the exhibition’s opening, reproduced and reviewed them in detail (CAN I GET A REPRODUCTION?). Usually, the jurors would bring one or two works.
Japanese settler-artists expected much from the jurors’ works. They repeatedly stated how difficult it was to see good paintings on the island and requested that jurors visiting from Japan bring their most representative and stimulating works with them. In his touching review of Umehara Ryūzaburō’s Sakurajima, on view at the Taipei salon in 1935, painter Tateishi Tetsuomi (1905-1980) recalled the sadness he had felt not being able to see the acclaimed work of his former teacher when it was first displayed in Tokyo at the Kokuga exhibition and the joy of finally having the opportunity to view the painting in person in Taipei (ADD REF). Even though, in total, only a few model works from Japan were displayed at the Taipei salon, Japanese settler-artists attached great importance to them.
Japanese settler-artists and critics in Taiwan often complained about the jurors' model works in the press. The most often repeated criticism was that the work was small, not representative of the artist’s oeuvre, lacking educational merits, or that it could guide only beginners and would leave true art lovers dissatisfied. By and large, the artists did not complain about the specific styles or subject matter represented in the jurors’ works. They just desired to see masterpieces rather than average paintings that they juror in question happened to have had on hand in his atelier as he was embarking on his trip to Taiwan (All jurors at the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition invited from Japan were male). Some suspected that the jurors did not take the Taiwanese art world seriously.