Publishing and Mediation by the Art Dealer Hakubundo in the Late Taisho Period

Focusing on the Period Surrounding Harada Taikan's Visit to China

Abstract

  This article examines, beginning with Harada Taikan (原田大観)'s two visits to China in Taisho 12 (1923), how Hakubundo (博文堂) advanced the study of Japanese calligraphy through its publishing projects including business partnerships, and how it came to monopolize the Chinese painting and calligraphy market in Japan, thereby forming a major collection. These issues are considered within the history of modern Japanese calligraphy and collection practices.

  First, Hakubundo's collotype art publications, adopted as textbooks for the calligraphy section of the teacher certification examinations, were disseminated by Onoe Saishu, who was highly influential in the calligraphy world, and thereby contributed to the promotion of research on ancient script styles. In addition, through Hakubundo's business partnerships with China's Fujinshushe (富晋書社) and Yanguangshi (延光室), its collotype art publications were exported to China; however, this should be understood not so much as a pursuit of high profits, but rather as a means of promoting Hakubundo on the Chinese mainland. Moreover, it is particularly important that, through Hakubundo's introduction of Sun Guoting Shupu (『孫過庭書譜』) published by Yanguangshi, a new phase was opened in the study of Chinese calligraphy history based on stylistic analysis of ink strokes, as exemplified by Matsumoto Hosui (松本芳翠)'s research on brush techniques.

  Furthermore, through the acquisition and sale of masterpieces during these visits to China, Hakubundo secured the funds for its reconstruction after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Also, by gaining the trust of former retainers who had served close to the Qing imperial household, which possessed the finest masterpieces of Chinese calligraphy, painting, and rubbings, as well as by obtaining new local collaborators, it went on, from these visits onward, to acquire many outstanding works of calligraphy and painting and to dominate the market.