Tsuchida Bakusen's Flat Bed And House Of Courtesan: Korean Aesthetics in Modern Japanese Art
Bigaku 59 (2):100-113 (
2008)
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Abstract
TSUCHIDA Bakusen 1887-1936 was a modern Japanese painter in Kyoto. The purpose of this thesis is to consider his two works in his later years, Flat Bed and House of Courtesan. Flat Bed is recently discussed in colonial studies and gender theories. Bakusen is an artist who treats the model as an object and therefore the kisaeng in his works is not treated as sexual object. The kisaeng's white folk dress line suggests "relief" in this work, which expresses the painter's artistic sense. House of Courtesan was sketched during his second visit to Korea and he could not finish this work because of his death. Here he depicted an old man, an old woman and a kisaeng; the theme differed from his former works. Therefore, I think this change was due to his visits to Korea where he was influenced by Portrait of Li Qixian, a famous scholar in Koryŏ Dynasty, and Portrait of Gonsō Sōjō, a Japanese religious picture. In his new portrait painting he tries to unite a portrait and a religious picture. By comparing his two works in this thesis, it can be stated that Bakusen is a modern Japanese painter who developed a new style of arts from the inspiration of Korean works