Kayama Matazo (1927-2004), Crescent Moon (Hatsuzuki), Showa period, 20th century | 加山又造　初月屏風　昭和42年（1967年）

Kayama Matazo, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1998, cat no. 24.

Rimpa meihinten [Rimpa: The Debut of Essential Rimpa Masterpieces in the Okada Museum of Art Collection], Mitsukoshi (Nihonbashi), Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 30.

Matazo Kayama, Kayama Matazo zenshu [Complete Works of Kayama Matazu], vol. 2, Byobuga no uchu [The Universe of Folding Screen Paintings], Tokyo, 1989, pl. 27.

Kobayashi Tadashi ed., Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2019, p. 202, no. 145.

“The most important feature of Japanese art lies in its unique conception of the decorative, one which enables the artist to thoroughly sublimate the subject matter so as to express only the purest of those essences that result from the process itself” ¹

A homage to the decorative tradition of Japanese art, a crescent moon hovers above pampas grass, distant mountains, and swirling waves. The season is autumn, indicated by the inclusion of pampas grass and the title Hatsuzuki, which refers to the first moon of the eighth lunar month, corresponding to mid-autumn. Matazo pushes the abstraction of the Rimpa [lit. [Ko]rin school] tradition, dislodging the motifs from their classical and literary associations – yet the feeling of an autumn night lit only by a slender, radiant crescent moon is strongly evoked. Through a complete flattening of perspective and the counterintuitive interlocking of individual motifs, Matazo conveys both the swaying of pampas grass on a plain flanked by mountains and the distant roar of crashing waves. The effect is immersive – it is as if all the sensations assail the viewer at once, rather than in increments, as our eyes are guided around the scene by the momentum of the water’s torrent.

Matazo was born in Kyoto to a family steeped in the arts. His father was a Nishijin textile designer and his grandfather a Kano school painter. He studied at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, before graduating in the Nihonga, or Japanese-style painting, department at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1949. He studied under Yamamoto Kyujin (1900-1986), one of the founders of the postwar Creative Art (Sozo bijutsu) group and quickly gained recognition for his work. His early paintings reveal a fascination with animals, Surrealism, and Cubism, while in the late 1950s he turned to classical Japanese techniques, including cut gold-leaf (kirikane), inspired by Rimpa and other historical decorative arts. By the mid-1960s, Matazo began producing large-scale paintings and screens that celebrated the sixteenth and seventeenth century aesthetic of Rimpa and Yamato-e works.

1. Ellen P. Conant et. al, Nihonga: Transcending the Past – Japanese Style Painting, 1868-1968, New York, 1995. 

展覽

《加山又造展》，東京国立近代美術館，東京，1998年，編號24

《琳派名品展》，三越（日本橋），東京，2015年，編號30

出版

加山又造，《加山又造全集》，卷2： 屏風画の宇宙 ，東京，1989年， 編號27

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷1，東京，2019年，編號145

「日本藝術最核心之特質，在於其獨樹一幟的裝飾性理念，此種理念使藝術家能將題材徹底昇華，僅呈現創作過程中淬煉出的最純粹本質。」¹

此作致敬日本藝術裝飾傳統，一彎新月懸於芒草、遠山與漩渦狀浪濤之上。時值秋季，此節令透過芒草與題簽「初月」得以彰顯，「初月」特指農曆八月初月，適逢仲秋時節。加山又造將琳派（即光琳派）傳統中的抽象性推向極致，使主題脫離古典文學聯想脈絡，卻仍深刻喚起秋夜僅憑纖細新月清輝映照之境。透過完全壓縮空間景深，並以反直覺的方式交錯堆疊各類紋樣，加山又造既傳遞平原上芒草隨風搖曳之態，亦融合遠山層疊與驚濤迴響之勢。畫面效果深邃入微，恍若所有感官體驗頃刻間向觀者席捲而來，而非逐次顯現。視線隨水流奔騰之勢遊走於畫面，營造出沉浸式體驗。

加山又造出身京都藝術世家，其父為西陣織紋樣師，祖父為狩野派畫師。他曾就讀京都市立美術工藝學校，後於1949年自東京藝術大學日本畫科畢業。師從戰後「創造美術」流派創始者山本丘人（1900-1986），並迅速於藝壇嶄露頭角。他的早期畫作顯露對動物、超現實主義與立體主義的著迷；至1950年代末，轉向鑽研日本古典技法，受琳派及其他歷史性裝飾藝術啟發。1960年代中期起，慕三開始創作頌揚十六、十七世紀琳派與大和繪美學之巨幅繪畫與屏風作品。

1. 艾倫·P·柯南特等人，《Nihonga: Transcending the Past – Japanese Style Painting, 1868-1968》，紐約，1995年。