Kitani Chigusa

Her father, Yoshioka Seijiro 吉岡政二郎, was a dealer in Western goods and sundries. Showing an early talent for painting, at the age of 12 she was sent to Seattle, Washington for two years to study Western style (yōga) painting.[2] In 1909 she returned home to attend the elite Osaka Prefectural Shimizudani Girls High School. In July of that same year the Great Kita Fire engulfed her family's Dōjima residence.

While in high school she studied under the guidance of renowned Shijō school painter Fukada Chokujō 深田直城 (1861-1947), known for his kachō-ga (bird and flower paintings). After graduating from high school in 1913, she moved to Tokyo to study under, and live in the household of, the female nihonga painter and occasional woodblock print designer Ikeda Shōen 池田蕉園 (1886-1917), known for her paintings of bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women).

At the age of twenty, in 1915, she returned to Osaka to live with her uncle, Yoshioka Jūsaburō 吉岡重三郎 (1883-1974), a prominent figure in Osaka's entrepreneurial circles, who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Takarazuka Revue and the growth of Hankyu Electric Railway. While she was studying in Osaka under the well-regarded nihonga painter Kitano Tsunetomi (1880-1947) and Kitano's friend the nihonga painter Noda Kyūho 野田九浦 (1879-1971), her painting Hari-kuyō 針供養, (Memorial Service for Old and Broken Needles), see Reference Images, was selected for the 1915, 9th Bunten Exhibition (Ministry of Education Art Exhibition).[3] 

In 1916 Kitani, along with three other young female artists Shima Seien 島成園 (1892-1970), Okamoto Kōen 岡本更園 (1895-?) and Matsumoto Kayō 松本華羊 (1893-1961), formed the Joshi-ri no kai (also seen romanized as Onna yonin no kai) 女四人の会 (Four-Woman Society) for mutual support and to promote and exhibit their own work. The group held a single exhibition in May 1916 at the Mitsukoshi department store in Osaka, showing paintings based on the work Kōshoku gonin onna (The Sensuality of Five Women) written in 1686 by Ihara Saikaku 井原西鶴 (1642-1693). It's unclear how long this association continued, but during this time when these four women were sensations on the art scene, evoking both positive and negative reviews of their work and themselves, their mutual support must have been comforting. 

In 1918, she would create the painting Ongoku (see Reference Images) in memory of her little brother who passed away that year, ongoku being a song associated with the Bon Festival Also known as urabon or obon, a Buddhist ritual usually observed on July 13 or 15 to honor ancestral spirits. The scene portrayed in this work, shown at the 12th Bunten in 1918, is thought to be from the bunraku play “Shinpan Utazaimon“ and the girl looking at the children through the lattice is considered to be the character Osome, the daughter of an oil merchant in the play.

In 1919 she began studying under the nihonga painter Kikuchi Keigetsu 菊池契月 (1879-1955) in Osaka upon the recommendation of the famous Kyoto nihonga painter Takeuchi Seihō 竹内栖鳳 (1864-1942).

In 1920 she married Kitani Hōgin 木谷蓬吟 (1877-1950), a researcher on the great dramatist of jōruri (a type of dramatic recitation accompanied by a shamisen associated with the Japanese puppet theater), Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Hōgin would publish the comprehensive 16-volume "Dai Chikamatsu Zenshū" in 1922-1925 and Chigusa would be one of eighteen artists to contribute a woodblock print design (see Reference Images) to the eighteen woodblock prints issued under the name Dai Chikamatsu zenshū furoku mokuhan to supplement the work.

In the year of her marriage to Hōgin, she established the painting school Yachigusa-kai (八千草会) at her Osaka home where she aimed to nurture, instruct and improve the status of female painters. "Essentially, women attended this school as part of their premarital lessons, but in 1925, [she] reorganised the school into a research facility and began holding exhibitions. She also organized her own exhibitions with other women painters in Osaka."[4]

At the 6th Teiten exhibition in 1925, her work Mayu no nagori (Remnants of the Eyebrows), see Reference Images, in which the diaphanous kimono worn by an alluring woman revealed too much resulting, it is reported, in a police warning to paint less provocative images in the future.[6] 

In the following year at the 7th Teiten, her work Jōruri Bune (Jōruri boat) was exhibited (see Reference Images.)

After giving birth to a son Gin'ichi​ 吟一 in 1921, she combined the care of her son and domestic work with her work as a creator and teacher. She continued to paint and exhibit regularly at official exhibitions into the 1930s and design illustrations for popular magazines such as, Shōjo no tomo 少女の友 (Girls' Friend); Shufu no tomo 主婦之友 (Housewife's Friend); Gekkan Nishi Nihon 月刊西日本 (Western Japan Monthly); Fujokai 婦女界 (Women's Sphere), see Reference Images below; Omoshito kurabu 面白倶楽部 (Omoshito Club) and Rekishi Shashin 歴史写真 (Historical Photographs) for which she and her students designed numerous covers and frontispieces as shown below under Reference Images, almost up until her death. 

"Chigusa Kotani stands out as one of the few female painters who remained at the forefront of the art world until her late years. This remarkable achievement can be attributed, in part, to the unwavering support of her husband, Hōgin, and the camaraderie of her fellow Yachigusa-kai members."[7]

[1] Mention of Setsu-Getsu-Ka-Sei is made in "Kaikodo Journal XVII: In the Eye of the Beholder," Kaikodo (Gallery : New York, N.Y.) , 2000, p. 140.

[2] No details seem to be available on the two years she spent in Seattle.

[3] The Bunten (文 展)  and its successor Teiten (帝展) official government exhibitions, held each year from 1907 to 1918 (Bunten) and 1919 to 1934 (Teiten, with the exception of 1923, the year of the Great Kanto Earthquake), would attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to see several hundred selected works picked from several thousand submitted works.

[4]  "Women Nihonga Painters and Bijinga" by Kojima Kaoru https://awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/premieres-femmes-peintres-de-bijinga/ [accessed 5-8-24]

[5] Translated from a leaflet for the exhibition 女、画を描く―木谷千種と大阪画壇― "Women, Painting: Chigusa Kotani and the Osaka Art Scene" A Celebration of Female Artists at the Ikeda City Museum of History and Japanese Folklore

[6] https://blog.goo.ne.jp/k-caravaggio/e/7137c9d56786c09ba724e77e7620d798 [accessed 5-11-24]

[7] Translated from leaflet for the exhibition 女、画を描く―木谷千種と大阪画壇― "Women, Painting: Chigusa Kotani and the Osaka Art Scene" A Celebration of Female Artists at the Ikeda City Museum of History and Japanese Folklore, p. 4.

REFERENCE IMAGES

Illustrations and Prints

Illustrations (color lithographs and offset color lithographs)

Like many Taishō era painters, Kitani worked as an illustrator creating covers, frontispieces and inserts for many of the popular magazines of the period. A few examples are shown below, including work she did for the pioneering graphic magazine Rekishi shashin 歴史写真 (History in Photographs), which often featured her work and those of her students for their covers, particularly between 1925 and 1927, but well into the 1930s. 

Rekishi Shashin

Starting in 1925 into the 1930s many of the covers of the magazine Rekishi Shashin 歴史写真 (History in Photographs), were designed by Chigusa and her students. The journal was published from 1913 until 1944 by entrepreneur Akiyoshi Zentarō (1866-1924) and was one of Japan's first graphic magazines focusing on the use of photographic illustrations. The magazines, which were aimed at a broad popular audience, feature brightly colored covers and traditional color frontispieces, followed by black-and-white photos illustrating a wide range of newsworthy domestic and international topics, including political events, sports and popular culture. A summary of significant historical events past and present occurring in months since the previous issue was provided on the back cover, e.g. from the July 1927 issue: "On July 4th in 1776, North America appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief and issued the Declaration of Independence."*

*actual date of Washington's being appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army was June 19, 1775.

"Twelve Loyal and Virtuous Women of Japan" appearing in Rekishi Shashin 歴史写真

Sample Seals and Signatures of the Artist

Note: With thanks for the assistance of the Asian Art Forum and I. Nagy.

last revision:

5/30/24

5/13/24 created

Prints in Collection

click on thumbnail for print details