Nishimura Goun

Undated photo of the artist

Nishimura Goun 西村五雲 (1877-1938)

BIOGRAPHY

Source: Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 110; Nihonga, Transcending the Past: Japanese-Style Painting, 1868-1968, Ellen P. Conant, et. al., Weatherhill, 1995 and miscellaneous sources.

Best known for his paintings of animals Nishimura Goun war born and lived his life in Kyoto. His real name was Genjirō 源次郎 and he was the second son of a Kyoto dyer. At the age of twelve he became the pupil of the Kyoto painter Kishi Chikudō (1826-1897), known for his paintings of animals, studying under him for seven years until Kishi's death. In 1899 he began studying with Takeuchi Seihō (1864-1942), known for his paintings of animals which "stunned the public", at Seihō's private art school, Chikujokai. He showed at the Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai (Japan Art Association) and then with the Zenkoku Kaiga Kyoshinkai (National Competitive Painting Exhibition). He was a prize winner at the first Bunten in 1907, winning for his painting of a polar bear poised over a captured seal, shown below. He would go on to become a member, and frequent juror, of the Teiten, a member of the Imperial Art Academy and a professor at various Kyoto Art schools. He would go on to establish his own painting school in 1912.1

In 1914 he contracted a debilitating illness which limited him to producing small-scale works. In 1924 he returned to teaching and remained active until his death in 1936.

Polar Bear, color on silk, 1907

Yamatane Museum of Art

This painting was inspired by the opening of the Kyoto City Zoo in 1903,

where Goun saw a polar bear for the first time.2

The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 which devastated Tokyo brought forth responses from many nihonga artists, as it did from Nishimura who produced a 12-part handscroll in 1925 depicting the devastation, one section of which is shown below.

Handscroll, color on paper

Overall dimensions: 12 15/16 x 220 13/16 in. (32.8 x 560.9 cm)

image source: National Museum of Asian Art

Scenes of the 1923 Earthquake, Freer Gallery of Art https://asia.si.edu/object/F1975.12/ (accessed 11/15/2020, 11:39:54 AM).

Primarily a painter, woodblocks were a minor part of his oeuvre. The Kyoto publisher, Unsōdō Publishing, issued a number of prints in shikishiban format either designed by Nishimura or copied from his paintings, two of which are shown below.

1 Bunten and Teiten were juried art exhibitions under government control, organized by the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.2 http://kagedo.com/wordpress/g/nishimura-goun-pair-byobu-polar-bears-brown-bear/ [11-19-23 o longer active]