Yoshihara Jirō and the Interrelation between Calligraphy and Abstract Painting in Postwar Japan

• In Event: Amateurism and the Art of Calligraphy in Postwar Japan

Abstract

In the Kansai area of the 1950s, calligraphy and abstract painting underwent an unprecedented mutual exchange. Painters created linear monochrome abstractions, while calligraphers shifted to writing only a few characters on large surfaces, challenging and competing with painting. Painters and calligraphers displayed their works at the same exhibitions, and deepened their dialogue in joint study meetings and publications. In this atmosphere, the painter Yoshihara Jirō (1905-1972) formed the Gutai art group in 1954, which was later to be recognized as one of the most groundbreaking collectives in postwar art. Gutai's early works' preoccupation with action and color control relate to avant-garde calligraphy in many ways.

It is possible to say that Gutai's leader, Yoshihara, one of the pioneers of abstract painting in Japan, saw calligraphy as a means to advance modernist painting. However, by the end of the 1950s, calligraphy and abstract painting reached the peak of their mutual approximation, and began to drift apart.

Whereas Yoshihara's famous circle paintings of the 1960s are commonly interpreted through their relation to calligraphy and Zen Buddhist ensō circles, they clearly differ from calligraphers' works. Yoshihara regarded and incorporated calligraphic expressions as a painter, and never considered himself a professional calligrapher. Thus, despite the visual similarity, the relation of the painter Yoshihara Jirō to calligraphy is much more complex than usually considered. This talk examines the intricate ways in which calligraphy informed Yoshihara and other Gutai artists, while putting their connection into the larger international context.

Author

• Shin'ichirō Osaki, Tottori Prefectural Museum