HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS Volume Five June -1937 Bulletin Two

Kwan Yin Gift of Honolulu Art Society Sui Dynasty

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CALENDAR June

To June 13,-,Processes of print~making, exhibition.

To June 27,......,Exhibition of tapa from Hawaii and Fiji.

1-8:00 p.m.,-,"Fantastic Art," lecture by E. C. Schenck.

1 to June 13-Fantastic Art-Miro and Calder, exhibition.

3,.......,4 :00 p.m,,-, Public phonograph concert, central court.*

3-8 :00 p.m,,......,Shakespeare readings by Joe A. Callaway.

6-4 :30 p.m,,-,Concert, Academy Chamber Music Ensemble.

10-8 :00 p.m.,......,Colored movies of Angkor, Frank Warren.

15 to June 27 ,-,Exhibition of Japanese peasant textiles.

15 to June 27,......., Pottery exhibition, Academy classes.

15 to July ll,-,One hundred prints by American etchers.

20-4:30 p.m.-Public clarinet recital by Earle Christopf.

22 to July 4-Exhibition of Filipino art.

29 to July 25,-,Mielziner~Whistler exhibition of stage designs.

29 to Aug. 6,-,Summer art classes for children.

July

4 to Aug . !,-,Exhibition of Polynesian art.

8-8 :00 p.m.,......, "Polynesian Wood~sculpture, " Dr. Peter Buck.

13 to July 25,......,Photographs of Hawaiian architecture, 1837~1937.

13 to Aug. I -Etchings of Elizabeth O 'Neill Verner.

15-4 :00 p.m.-Print talk by Elizabeth O 'Neill Verner.

15-8 :00 p.m.,......, " Polynesian Domestic Architecture," K. Emory.

22-8 :00 p.m.,......, "Mohenjo~Daro versus Easter Island," Dr. A . Metraux.

26 to Aug. 8,-, European church vestments, exhibition.

26 to Aug. 8-European textiles, exhibition.

29-8 :00 p.m.- "Polynesian Decorative Design," Margaret Kai.

August

3 to Aug. 29,......, Mezzotints of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

* One of a series, given each week at the same hour.

•'

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Girl 's Ceremoni al Kim on o C . 1780

JAPANESE PEASANT TEXTILES'

In late years Japan has become more conscious of the importance of her peasant art, although accurate informa­tion about it is still difficult to obtain. Much has been writ­ten about the rich brocades, colored silks and heavily embroidered costumes of the aristocrats, but little has been said of the beautifully patterned cotton fabrics commonly used by the Japanese peasants in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Several interesting examples of these have lately been acquired by the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

During the two hundred years of peace under the Sho­guns, the plebeian class grew in economic security and in self-expression. Though separated from the aristocrats by many social barriers, the art of the lower classes was domi­nated by the same conventionalized symbols.

The creative achievements of the common people in­cluded the Kabuki theatre, the color print and the work of various artisans so skilled that they would, today, be called artists . They worked in bronze, lacquer, and pottery as

1 Acknowledgment for information concerning these textiles is made to Miss Jessie Keith and Mr. K. Imai, who collected them, and to Mr. Yozo omura.

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well as in the colored textiles designed for use in the simple home.

The use, method of making and symbolism are fascinat­ing paths in the study of these textiles. No traveler has returned from Japan without a vivid memory of the inevi-­table bundle carried by man, woman and child, around which is neatly folded the gaily patterned furoshiki. This same convenient wrapping is also used for large bundles, for example, bedding. One of the pieces in this collection is a furoshiki measuring six feet square.

Japanese bedding, the very thick quilt, was also covered with these stencilled blue cottons. They were called futon covers. Yutan was a wrapping for furniture, oblong in shape, made of three or four widths joined together. The noren was a curtain used both in the home and in the the-­atre for festival occasions. The peasant coats were numer-­ous. The fisherman, the fireman and the farmer had coats bearing designs which would today grace milady's theatre wrap. The illustration on page 23 shows a fisherman 's coat stitched with coarse white cotton in a beautiful design of a flying dragon on clouds and waves, in all probability, symbolizing a successful catch.

Kimono material for boys, girls and adults was of great importance, for the design and color must be appropriate for age, sex and occasion.

The background of each of the hand--loomed pieces in our small collection is in dark blue, varying from a blue-­black in an unwashed example, to a worn blue·, mellowed by use. The process of dyeing textiles by means of "resist" is called yuzen. It is named for its inventor, Miyazaki Yuzen, a Buddhist priest, who was a Ukiyoye painter of the late seventeenth century, and is still used as a method in Japan today where handwork is the rule instead of the exception.

The cloth, which is about fourteen inches wide in lengths of about thirty feet , is stretched on two sides of a fifteen -­foot board. The dye, formerly vegetable, is mixed with

Q '

. <I ..

21

F u roshiki ("Wrapping) Ho-o Bird C. 1820

rice paste and applied through stencils with a wooden paddle. To complete a design twenty or thirty stencils may be used, each requiring a period of drying, with the board standing upright.

After the coloring is completed, the cloth is removed from the board and placed in a steam compartment for about half an hour. It must be arranged with sawdust be­tween the folds so that the color does not run . The steam-

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ing sets the dye. The cloth is then rinsed, sometimes in the river Kamogawa which runs through the city of Kyoto. This stream is claimed to have properties which help set the color.

In order to dye the background, the pattern is entirely covered with the rice starch "resist", and the whole piece is dipped in dye vats, after which the steaming and rinsing process must be repeated. Chugata is the name of this process used by the peasant folk. It is similar to yuzen, but fewer stencils are used. The "resist" is often squeezed through a tube and drawn in a free-hand manner, much as we decorate cakes. The white design left on the deep blue background may afterwards have color applied on it by stencil or brush with a method called surikomi.

The vegetable dyes which gave the textiles the mellow tones of a beautiful old Ukiyoye print, were ai for blue from the dyers' knot weed, beni for red from the saffiower , India madder for the deep red, and bark from the kiwada tree served for the gamboge yellow.

These textile designs, entirely free from realism, are highly stylized. For centuries artists of Asia have recog­nized the fact that vision and imagination are the faculties by which the painter as well as the poet must grapple with reality. The patterns are traditional and fraught with the symbolism that permeates all Chinese and Japanese art.

The tortoise, the pine tree, the crane. the phoenix, the lion and the horse appear most often as art motifs in the present collection. They served the aristocrat and the peasant alike in teachins:r the essential lessons of the ori­ental philosophy of life.

The linen kimono material, illustrated on page 19, was made about 1780 for a little girl as she emerged from in~ fancy at her sixth birthday-a time for congratulation. The bamboo meant strength; the tortoise and crane, tsuru to kame, symbolized longevity. "Crane a thousand, tortoise

Ryoshi-banten (Fisherman's Coat) Flying Dragon on Clouds and VITaves c. 1820

ten~thousand" was a daily repeated message to the child, These symbols were often used in wedding ceremonials.

To the uninitiated the tortoise with the long tail seems like a figment of the imagination. His streaming appen~ dages were really due to the growth of plant parasites on the shell. This fact of nature has been stressed throughout

24

Noren (Curtain) Crane and Tortoise c. 1830

25

Noren (Curtain) Pine, Bamboo and Plum

26

Futon (Beel-Cover) P eony a nd Lion c. 1820

the centuries, and he is known as the "green dressed mes­senger" which carries the six cardinal virtues of wisdom, friendship, fidelity, charity, sincerity, and contemplaton in­scribed on his back. He is called "Zo-Roku", "Carrying Six", and that is often used as a boy's name.

The phoenix, which is feng-huang to the Chinese and ho-o to the Japanese, is a chimerical creature like the dragon-a composite of many birds, embodying their po-

27

Furoshiki ( \ \Trapping) White Crane c. 1820

tential attributes. It combines the beauty, grace, elegance and charm of all birds, but particularly of the pheasant and the peacock, and carries with it the feeling of sovereignty. It is used with the kiri or paulownia tree. ( Note the furo­shiki on page 21.) The phoenix is found in carvings, paint~ ings, prints, textiles, on screens-in fact , wherever it was desired to inculcate the tenets of a particular doctrine, but never mefely to reproduce a natural image.

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Noren (Curta in) Tokugawa Period

Likewise the peony and lion..-symbolizing the yin and the yang , the female and the male, the grace and force of the elements..-bring beauty, truth and a spiritual meaning into the homes of the common people.

One of our most important textiles has a blue ground on which is painted five rollicking horses in faded pink. Little is known of the use of this particular piece which probably dates from early Tokugawa times . Its worn and mended condition indicates that it has been grea tly cher~ ished through the years.

Thus the aristocrat and the humbler folk of Japan are bound together by that common love of art and common knowledge of the meaning and spiritual force which makes the woof and warp of all their art forms. It is their common heritage.

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REFERENCES

Crewdson, W. Textiles of old Japan (Transactions of the Japan Society), London, 1912.

Dresser, Christopher. Japan, London, 1882, pp. 431~449.

Ficke, A. D. Chats on Japanese prints, New York, n.d., p. 34.

Hart, Mrs. Ernest. Some Japanese industrial art~workers (Trans~ actions of the Japan Society), London, 1892.

Kogei Magazine, edited by M. Yanagi, Museum of Folk Art, Tokyo. (Text in Japanese.)

Victoria and Albert Museum. Guide to Japanese textiles, London, 1919.

,.....,A. P.

KWAN YIN

A grey limestone figure of Kwan Yin was presented by the Honolulu Art Society to the Academy on its tenth an­niversary. The statue is twenty-five inches high and has been attributed to the Sui dynasty (581-618 A.D.). 1 The god is represented standing on a lotus pedestal, holding a vase in the left hand and what may have been a lotus or a willow branch in the right hand. 2 A small figure of Amitabha Buddha is in the center of the ornamental crown. A long scarf is draped around the shoulders and drops over the arms to the pedestal. Jewelled chains, looped into a rectangular and a circular buckle, fall over the simple drapery of the skirt. There are traces of faded red and green pigment on the figure.

The Sui dynasty is an important transitional period in Chinese art. For more than three hundred years the coun­try had been divided by civil strife and was finally united under a single ruler. The art of the Six Dynasties ( 220-589 A.D.) which preceded the Sui dynasty was influenced in the south by the art of southern India and in the north by that of the Wei Tartars. The latter, which reached its greatest achievement at this time, was characterized by the

1 Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the 5th to the 14th century (Lon­don, 1925), Plate 314-B.

2 The figure is shown in reversed position in Professor Siren's book.

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elaborate, stylized drapery, the conventionalized treatment of the face in which the archaic smile was prevalent, and the great length and flatness of the figure. The Academy's stone statue of Buddha from Shih K'u Ssu is an example of this period.

The sculpture of the Sui dynasty is transitional in that it continued the characteristics of the northern Wei art but developed greater plasticity and more formal representa­tion of the human figure. The Honolulu Art Society gift is less linear in composition than our examples of Wei sculpture, is rounder in form and shows a less archaic treatment of the face. This new acquisition forms an im­portant link between our earlier statues and the freer and more naturalistic sculpture of the T'ang period.

----K. M. J.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY GIFT

The Academy is indebted to the Honolulu Art Society for one of the most outstanding additions to its collection of Oriental art in the recent gift of the limestone figure of the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan Yin, from the Sui dynasty. It is the only example of the sculpture of this period in our collection.

The statue was purchased through the voluntary contri­butions of members and friends of the Society and was presented by Mr. Benjamin L. Marx, the president, on the occasion of the Academy's Tenth Anniversary, Thursday, April 8.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Honolulu Art Society and to its members and friends for this generous gift and for the loyal support and splendid service which they are ever ready to give in furthering the interests of the Academy.

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HONOLULU ART SOCIETY

The annual meeting of the Honolulu Art Society was _ held at the Academy on Thursday, May 27, at 8:00 p.m. Officers elected for the coming year are: Mr. Benjamin L. Marx , president; Mrs. G. J. Watumull, vice president; Mrs. Thomas Nickerson, secretary; Mr. J. Russell Cades, treasurer, and Mrs. Arthur E . Restarick, executive secre~ ta ry.

NEW MEMBERS SINCE FEBRUARY, 1937

CONTRIBUTING MEMBER

Mrs. Thomas Balding

ANNUAL MEMBERS

Mrs. Charles Ackerman M r. Guy Ayrault Mrs. Stanley Ballard M rs. K. W . Barr Dr. Rudolph Benz Mr. Peter Boynton Mr. William Buttles Mr. Milton Cades Mrs. W erner Dietz Miss Esther Gerber Mr. and Mrs. James W. Glover Mrs. L. L. Gowans Miss Virginia Haynes Mrs. Harold Hayselden Mrs. David Jamieson

Mr. and Mrs. William Jamieson Mr. and Mrs. R. S. B. Mackenzie Mrs. Clyde McCollum Mr. Eugene Manfrin Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Mitchell Dr. A. V . Molyneux Mrs. V. N. Ossipoff Mr. Terence Parker Miss Hazel Peppin Mr. Manuel Silva Mr. Seymour Terry Mrs. H . A. Truslow Miss Jean Wood Mr. and Mrs. Paul Wysard

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Japanese peasant textiles described in this Bulletin will be on view in the main gallery from June 15 to June 27.

A series of weekly talks on Polynesian Culture will be given on Thursday evenings during July. The speakers will be Dr. Peter Buck, Mr. Kenneth Emory and Dr. Alfred Metraux of the Bishop Museum staff and Mrs. Margaret H. Kai , instructor in primitive art at the Hono~ lulu Academy of Arts.

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In July pottery made by students in Glen Lukens classes in ceramics at the University of Southern California will be shown at the Academy. Mr. Lukens and his pupils are doing some of the most outstanding work in ceramics in the United States. Last year at the Robineau Memorial Exhibition at Rochester , New York, Glen Lukens himself received first prize for his pottery. Several of his pieces will be included in the coming exhibit.

SUMMER CLASSES

The summer session at the Academy opens on Tuesday, June 29, and continues until Friday, August 6. Several interesting courses are being offered.

Mrs. Elizabeth Thesmar Watson, instructor in art at the Academy, will give classes in creative art for children from 6 to 8 years of age. These groups will work with paint, chalk and clay. They will meet two mornings each week, on Monday and Thursday, or on Tuesday and Friday, from 8: 15 to 9:30.

For the intermediate group- from 9 to 11 years-a class in creative dramatics will be conducted by Mr. Ben Norris , instructor in art at the Kamehameha Boys' School. He will be assisted by Mrs. Margaret H . Kai of the Academy staff. They will meet four days a week, on Tuesday, Wednes,.., day, Thursday and Friday, from 8: 15 to 11 :30 a .m. The children themselves will work out a play based on Hawai,.., ian mythology and, under Mrs. Watson's direction, will design and paint the scenery and properties.

In addition to the class in dramatics, Mr. Norris is con-­ducting a course in sketching for students of high school age. They will have two classes a week, from 8: 15 to 11 :30 on Wednesday morning for work in the Academy, and on Friday for an outdoor sketching trip .

The course in pottery for high school students which was conducted by Mrs. Elsie Das last year proved very popular. It is being repeated this summer to a small group

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Chi nese T ext ile 19th Century

who will meet on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8: 15 to 10: 30. The course will include experience in coil built and wheel pottery, with special emphasis on good pottery design. A weekly lecture on the History and Appreciation of Pottery Forms will be given by Miss Alyce Hoogs.

Registrations for these courses will be accepted at the educational office during the week beginning June 22.

The credit course for teachers ,......, Practical Art in the Classroom-is being given again this summer. It is desig~ nated as Art S~230 in the University of Hawaii bu1letin. This group will meet every afternoon, except Saturday, from 1 :30 to 3:30 in Mrs. Watson's studio. Registration for the course must be made at the University of Hawaii.

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PERMANENT COLLECTION

GIFTS

Mrs. A. L. Castle,-,Early American green glass muddler. Dr. and Mrs. C. Montague Cooke,-, Two albums of phonograph rec­

ords. Messrs. E. Grossman and G. Moody,-,Swedish glass vase by Lind­

strand, contemporary. Honolulu Art Society,-,Chinese limestone statue of Kwan Yin, Sui

dynasty; pair of George IV blue glass finger bowls. Mrs. Philip E. Spalding and Dr. C. Montague Cooke,-, Japanese screen,

attributed to Sesson, late 15th century. Staff Members,-, Two albums of phonograph records.

PURCHASES

2 Korean bronze bowls, from King's grave at Kyongtzu. 2 Chinese figures of sheet silver, Han dynasty. Chinese black jade pig, Han dynasty. Marquesan water bottle of carved coconut.

LIBRARY

GIFTS

Association of Honolulu Artists,---,Bruce: Art in Federal buildings; Rivera : Portrait of Mexico.

Mrs. C. H. Atherton,......., Phillips : Paul de Lamerie, citizen and goldsmith of London.

Mrs. Alf Hurum,-,Cheney : Art and the machine. Mr. A. Kroch,.......,Granger: Chicago welcomes you; Logan : Sanity in

art; W ol tersdorf: Living architecture. Mr. B. L. Marx,_, Mostra de Tiziano, Venezia, Catalogo. Mrs. B. L. Marx,.......,Vie Parisien, La mode, le chic, !'elegance, 1923-1933. Wildenstein & Co.,-,Catalogue of a restrospective loan exhibition of

the paintings of Edouard Manet.

PRINT DEPARTMENT

PURCHASES

Anderson, Stanley,-,drypoints: "Rue Porte au Berger, Caen," "Place St. Gervaise Falaise."

Blampied, Edmund,-,etching : "The End of the Day. " Brockhurst, G. L.,.......,etching: "Macnamara." Cain, Charles,---,etching and drypoint : "The Great Mosque." Cameron, D . Y.,-,etching: "St. Aignan, Chartres."

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Di.irer, Albrecht-engravings : "Philip Melanchthon," "The Cook and His Wife."

Haden, Sir Seymour-etching : "Fullham." McBey, James-etching : "El Soko." Rembrandt-etchings: "Abraham Caressing Isaac," "Jacob and Laban,"

"Old Bearded Man with Fur Cap," "Rembrandt with Plumed Hat," "The Baptism of the Eunuch."

Schongauer, Martin-engraving : "The Nativity." Short, Sir Frank-etching : "A Quiet Eve on the Ferry." Turner, J. M. W.-aquatint and etching : "Rispah," "Ville de Thun,"

"Isis. " Walker, Alexander-etchings: "Eastern Valley," "Sudbury." Whistler, J. A. McN.-etching : "En plein Soleil."

SCHOOL LOAN DEPARTMENT

GIFTS

C . Alfred Castle Memorial-color print : Cornelia Macintyre Foley, "Nude."

Miss Nellie Haynes-2 reproductions : N. Lancret, "Innocence," "The Music Lesson."

Honolulu Art Society-lithograph : Robert Majors, "Magnolia"; oil : E. Tay, "Spider Lilies" ; 4 watercolors : Charles W . Bartlett, "Japanese Woman and Baby," "Shiji, Japan, Moonlight over Mountain," "Hakone-Sunset over Hills," "Hakone-Landscape."

Mr. John M. Kelly-aquatint : John M. Kelly, "Mona." Mrs. Wade Warren Thayer-Late 19th century American costume.

PURCHASES

Objects-3 pieces Marquesan tapa; Hawaiian nose flute, coconut knee drum, water gourd; series of Chinese textile samples, from Chi~ nese government collection of 1884~5.

Pictures-Portfolio of American Art containing 12 reproductions : 7 color reproductions of paintings : Cezanne, "Still Life-Fruit"; Derain, "Landscape," "Castel Gandolfo"; Gauguin, "Women of Tahiti" ; Homer, "House and Trees in Nassau," "Key West, Negro Cabin and Palms"; Monet, "Summer. "

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HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS TELEPHONE 6281 900 SOUTH BERETANIA STREET HONOLULU, T.H.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES DR. C. MONTAGUE CooKE .................................... . . .. ...... ..... ........... President MRS. THEODORE RICHARDS ................................ .................... Vice-President MR. CLARENCE H. CooKE ............................................................ Treasurer MR. THEODORE A. CooKE ......... . ........... .. .... ........ ......... Assistant Treasurer

Mrs. Philip E. Spalding Mrs. Isaac M. Cox Mrs. Theodore A. Cooke Mr. Richard A. Cooke Mrs. Stephen A. Derby Mrs. Alva E . Steadman Mrs. Livingston Jenks Mr. Edgar C. Schenck

THE STAFF EDGAR C. ScHENCK ............... ............... : ............................. .. Acting Director DOROTHY R. SCHENCK ......... .... . ......... . ................. ...... .Educational Director KATHRINE McLANE JENKS ....... ... . .. . . . , ....... .. . .. ........ ........... .... .... .. Consultant ELIZABETH THESMAR WATSON .... ............... .... .lnstructor in Creative Art ALYCE HooGs .............. ........................................ / nstructor in Oriental Art MARGARET HOCKLEY KAI... .... ........... .......... . .. .lnstructor in Primitive Art ANN J. CORBETT .. .... ... .......... ...... ......... .. ... .... ...... ... ... .Educational Assistant ALICE F. PooLE .............................................................. .... Keeper of Prints MARION MORSE ............................................................................... .Librarian BIM MELGAARD ............................................. ....... Secretary to the Director MARVEL N. ALLISON ....................................................... .Editor of Bulletin GEORGE W. DuNCAN ....... .. ........... ... ............ . .. Superintendent of Building

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT The loan collection, for all teachers, contains pictures, slides,

phonograph records, textiles, and a range of objects for the study of different cultures. Teachers who wish to bring classes to the Academy for talks by staff members may arrange for them by telephoning the educational office. Instruction in art and crafts is given to children during the two semesters of the school year and for a six-weeks' term in summer. The classes are held after school hours on week days and on Saturdays.

LIBRARY AND PRINT DEPARTMENT Books and current magazines on art may be had for study by

the public, during Academy hours, in the reference library. The privi­lege of taking out certain books is extended to members of the Hono­lulu Art Society only. Membership cards may be obtained in the library. All prints in the collection are available, by appointment, in the print study room.

ACADEMY HOURS Sunday .................... 3 p .m.-6 p.m. Tuesday ................. .10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday ............ 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Thursday ................ 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday ..................... .10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday .................. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Admission is free. Staff members will conduct visitors through the Academy if desired. Wheel chairs are available. Bulletins, pub­lished quarterly, are free. Copies will be mailed upon request.