Unveiled: Fukuda Kodōjin, Japan’s Great Poet and Landscape Artist
In recent decades, art historians have made attempts to reevaluate the understanding of when the tradition of literati or scholar-poet painter (nanga or bunjinga) ended in Japan. It was initially held that this tradition disappeared at the beginning of the Meiji era in 1868, but there were artists who kept this art form alive. One of them, Fukuda Kodōjin (1865–1944), had a “fan club” of influential admirers that included the then prime-minister of Japan, Tanaka Giichi. Living a relatively uncomplicated life, Kodōjin was idealized as a recluse and a true literatus, his fans captivated by his poetry and his paintings. But following his death in 1944 and the end of the Asia-Pacific War in 1945, Japan averted further from traditional values and interests to a highly modernized country wherein Chinese studies no longer held the societal significance it once had. Kodōjin quickly fell into obscurity in his native Japan.
Showcasing almost 60 works including loans from Japan, Europe, and the U.S., “Fukuda Kodōjin: Japan’s Great Poet and Landscape Artist” is the very first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of this artist; accompanied by a 344-page publication, available online and the Store at Mia. The result of fifteen years of extensive research into more than eight hundred works, Dr. Andreas Marks will talk about Kodōjin’s life and art.