Amateur Calligraphy in Professional Ceramics and Ikebana: The Cases of Teshigahara Sōfū and Kitaōji Rosanjin

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

Abstract

This talk investigates the role of calligraphy in the oeuvre of two prominent Japanese postwar artists: the ceramist Kitaōji Rosanjin (1883-1959) and the ikebana artist Teshigahara Sōfū (1900-1979). Both of them were the most prominent figures in their respective fields, and strived to modernize their arts, initiating the fundamental transformations of ikebana and ceramics in the postwar decades. Both of them also occasionally practiced and exhibited calligraphy, while highlighting its amateur features.

I will focus on Teshigahara's and Rosanjin's views concerning the professional calligraphic world, and analyze their wish to stay outside of it. In this case, the self-identity and self-positioning of the artists as non-calligraphers is pivotal, since both of them would have had the necessary training to be considered professionals. Hence, their decision to be considered amateurs was a conscious choice.

I will argue that Rosanjin's and Teshigahara's distancing from the professional calligraphic circles could be considered an attempt to create the image of modern literati scholars, who are skillful in the entire spectrum of the traditional arts, and express their artistic agenda through their synthesis.

Through the examples of Teshigahara and Rosanjin, this talk will investigate the relationships between avant-garde ikebana, pottery, and calligraphy, and the transforming roles they played in the larger context of postwar Japanese art. Which type of calligraphy was particularly appealing to Rosanjin and Teshigahara? Did they prefer traditional or avant-garde calligraphic styles? How did their views of calligraphy relate to their own theories of modernity in traditional arts?

Author

• Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer, Heidelberg University