Shunsō Hishida\u27s "Widow and Orphan" : Ideal Image of Tenshin Okakura

The purpose of this paper is to consider the early works of the modern Japanese-style painter Shunsō Hishida, who was active in the Meiji era. In 1881 Tenshin (Kakuzō) Okakura, who served in the Ministry of Education after graduating from the University of Tokyo, worked with Ernest Francisco Fenollosa to protect traditional art and develop the reconstruction movement. They set up the Kangakai and aimed to promote research on and the creation of Japanese art. These ideals were inherited by the Tokyo Art School, which opened later. The art world of Japan in the Meiji era was greatly influenced by the Meiji government. Okakura also acted as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Education and worked within the framework of the Meiji government. Taking the above as background, the paper first clarifies how closely the Meiji government and art were related and considers how the ideal that Okakura championed can be positioned. Second, the paper analyzes "Widow and Orphan," which Hishida painted for his graduation project at the Tokyo Art School. The paper thus considers the intentions of Hishida in the early stage of his career in light of the situation in Japan at the time and the ideal of Okakura