A Study of Women’s Self-representation in Nihonga

Acceptance of Feminism from the Perspective of Female Japanese Style Painting Artists–

Abstract

In this paper, I intend to organize the productive background of the works by female Japanese style artists through their statement. Furthermore, I will demonstrate that the self-portrait of these female artists represents and reflects of feminist in the period.

This paper focuses on seven self-portraits by five female Japanese painting artists as follows: Itō Shōha , Shima Seien, Kajiwara Hisako, Ogura Yuki, and Kitazawa Eigetsu. They are renowned female artists to create a female image, positively participating in the governmental and institutional exhibitions such as Kanten and Inten.

As reviewing the previous research, I reconfirmed that Japanese gender studies remain a problem of sex/gender difference in the gaze toward female figures. Moreover, when investigating the productive background and the statement of female Japanese style painters at the same time, I found the result led to another question about only few works could be regarded as resistance to the male gaze as well. Therefore, I assert it requires to exam their self-portraits through a new perspective to reflect feminism. I confirmed how artists expressed the female images at the time. In consequence, it supposes that there are a few numbers of self-portraits since the portraits in Japanese style painting mainly not emphasize self, and also the subject of artworks gradually shifts to a female figure. As I surveyed the making of self-portraits in their painting careers, it reveals Seien’s Mudai and Self-portrait project feminism according to the words by herself and the gaze of the painted character directly facing to the viewer. On the other side, Seikan by Hisako and koujitu by Eigetsu present as self-portraits at first glance, nonetheless, they could express individual achievements. These works highlight the profile of the characters who have no consciousness of gaze of the audience and imply the scene of the artist immersing themselves in the production. Finally, Before Production and Summer by Shōha indicate the works as Bijin-ga surrendering to the gaze of male viewers. Shōha began self-portrait and ceased creating the genre of historical painting, which could be considered as the selection for official exhibition and the response to the appropriate femininity for social expectation at the time. In conclusion, the workswith the representation of feminism in this era remain unknown and need further research.