Fumie Taniguchi

Taniguchi Fumie (谷口 富美枝, Taniguchi Fumie, 2 August 1910[1] - 11 August 2001[2]) was a Japanese painter[3] who rose to prominence in the 1930s for her modern and elegant paintings of beautiful women. Her maiden name was Senka[4]. She has often changed her name to Fumie Taniguchi, Fumie Taniguchi, Fumie Taniguchi, Senka Taniguchi, Fumie Funada, Senka Funada, Jyuko Kagetsu, etc.[5] depending on her works or on her marriage. Her first husband was Tamaki Funada, also a Japanese-style painter.

Table of Contents

Biography

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Early Life and studies

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Seiryu-sha

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During the war

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In the United States

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Footnotes

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References

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Biography

Early Life and studies

Taniguchi was born in Tokyo in 1910[1][5]. In 1924, she moved to Urawa (now Saitama), Saitama Prefecture,[1][6] after the Great Kanto Earthquake.

She aspired to become a Japanese-style painter in admiration of Uemura Shoen[1], and graduated from the Higher Normal Course of the Japanese Painting Department of the Women's College of Fine Arts in 1931[6], and from the Special Course of the Art Department of Bunka Gakuin in 1934[6].

Seiryu-sha

In 1929, while still at Joshibi, she became a member of Japanese painter Ryuko Kawabata's Seiryu-sha (6). In September 1929, at the age of 20, he exhibited "Mugi-aki" at the 2nd Seiryusha Exhibition (Tokyo Prefectural Art Museum)[6], and in 1934, at the 6th Seiryusha Exhibition, she exhibited "Sweet Factory"[1][7], depicting women working in a drop factory. The following year, in 1935, she exhibited a life-size screen painting of six modern girls getting ready, entitled "Dressing People", at the Seiryusha Autumn Exhibition[8]. This work, which depicts the innocent beauty of Japanese women while reflecting the world in the way they change from Japanese to Western clothes, was highly praised and won the Y Prize[7][8]. In 1936, at the Autumn Seiryu-sha Exhibition, she exhibited "Mountain Rest", in which a modern girl relaxes in a mountain cottage, and "Sea Rest", in which she strolls along the beach in a swimming costume, again winning the Y Prize[8][9]. Taniguchi's work was praised as "one of the few works to depict a modern woman to this extent[10]" and as "a painter who has achieved a firm position in the art world as a woman's bedroom painter[11]"[8][9].

Taniguchi regarded her motifs of young modern women as "special artists" who "kicked aside the old common sense and implemented a new way of life"[12][13]. However, as the Sino-Japanese War, which broke out in 1937, intensified, the flamboyant outfits came under fire[14].

During the war

In 1938, Taniguchi was one of the first to respond to the current situation by exhibiting "Patriotic March", a painting of girls singing, and "Hikoki", a painting of a mother dedicating her child, at the "Seiryusha 6th Exhibition in Spring"[14][15]. At the end of the exhibition, she left Seiryu-sha[8]. The following year, Taniguchi held a solo exhibition, but without the backing of the art world, she came under intense scrutiny[4][14].

In the same year, she joined the innovative Rekitei Art Association[14]. She met Tamaki Funada, a member of the association, and they moved out of their family home in Urawa to live near his address in Setagaya, Tokyo, where he was living at the time[8].

In 1942, she became interested in Noh and began to study dance and chanting with a teacher of the Kita school, and began to paint Noh. In 1943, under the guidance of the Army Press Department, a group of fifty female painters formed the Women Artists' Service Corps, of which Taniguchi became a member[17][18]. In 1943, Taniguchi participated in the "Warriors" exhibition, showing "Air Defense" and "Tank Soldiers".

Towards the end of the war, Taniguchi evacuated to Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, the hometown of Funada Tamaki, to get married[19]. On August 3, 1945, three days before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, she gave birth to her first son[19].

In the United States

For a while after the war, Tamaki remained in Kure, where she and her husband devoted themselves to the revival of local art[20]. In 1946, Tamaki became a director of the Kure Art Association, and laid the foundations for the city's art exhibitions[20]. Taniguchi was awarded the Governor's Prize in 1946 for a public exhibition of paintings commemorating the promulgation of the new constitution, and the Mayor's Prize in 1948 in the Japanese painting category of the third Kure City Art Exhibition[4][20]. In 1955, she married a Japanese-American whom she had been introduced to by an acquaintance[20][21]. In 1955, she married an American of Japanese descent, whom an acquaintance had introduced to her.[20][21] She moved to the United States with the hope that she would be able to promote Japanese painting to American women and that she would be able to break new ground in America.

It is unclear whether Taniguchi continued to make paintings in the United States[20]. She moved alone to Los Angeles, where she continued to work as a waitress, housekeeper and seamstress [20]. She also published autobiographical novels ten times from 1967 to 1975 under the names "Fumie Taniguchi" and "Jyuko Kozuki" in "Noka Bungei", a coterie magazine for Japanese-Americans [15][21].

In the comedy film "Bubble Boy" (directed by Blair Hayes) released in 2001, Taniguchi appeared for a few seconds as a Japanese woman in a kimono [23][24]. In 2001, she died at the age of 91[23][24].

Footnotes

^ a b c d e Chifu Kakuta, "Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki", Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 2016, p. 1.

^ Chifu Tsunoda, "Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki", Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 2016, p. 6.

^ "Urgent Project: Don't Lose to Corona! Collection Exhibition "The Beauty and Power of Pretty Flowers"" (in Japanese). Kure Municipal Museum of Art. Viewed 15 April 2021.

^ a b c d e Tsunoda Chifu, "Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki", Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 2016, p. 3.

^ a b Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footsteps (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 5.

^ a b c d e Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footprints (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 6.

^ a b Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footprints (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 8.

^ a b c d e f Tsunoda Chifu, "Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki", Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 2016, p. 2.

^ a b Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footsteps (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 10.

^ Manchoho review, from "Taikage" (Vol. 12, No. 10, October 1936).

^ Review of Nagoya Shimbun, from "Taikei" (Vol. 12, No. 10, October 1936).

^ a b Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footprints (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 11.

^ Taniguchi, Fumie, "On the Beauty of Women" (Seishokai Essays), Bino-Kuni, Vol. 14, No. 3, 1938, pp. 42-43.

^ a b c d Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footsteps (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 12.

^ a b Kitahara, Megumi, "Why there were no great female war painters: the case of Taniguchi Fumie", Bijutsu Techo, November 2017, p. 103.

^ Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's painting career and footprints (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 13.

^ a b c d Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footprints (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 14.

^ "Women artists' apprenticeship corps | Dictionary of Contemporary Art Terms ver2.0". artscpae. viewed 15 April 2021.

^ a b Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footsteps (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 15.

^ a b c d e f g h i Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footprints (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 16.

^ a b c d e Tsunoda Chifu, "Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki", Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 2016, p. 4.

^ "In search of a new life, Ms. Fumie Taniguchi remarried and moved to the United States", Mainichi Shimbun, 4 July 1955, morning edition.

^ a b Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footsteps (1910-2001)", 2018, p. 17.

^ a b Kakuta Chifu, "Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki", Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 2016, p. 6.

References

Kitahara, Megumi, "'Modern' and 'Traditional' Japanese Painter, Taniguchi Fumie (1910-2001)", Taikaneyama Ronsou. Japanese Studies, Vol. 48, Osaka University, 2014, pp. 1-25, ISSN 0387-4818, NAID 120005756460.

Funada, Fujio and Kitahara, Megumi, "Memories of the Japanese-style painter Taniguchi Fumie, Tracing her footsteps : Interview with Funada, Fujio", The Taikaneyama Review, Vol. 51, Osaka University, Graduate School of Letters, 2017, pp. 1-19, ISSN 0387-4818, NAID 120006585475.

Kakuta, Chifu, 'Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki', Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 2016.

Kitahara, Megumi, 'Why there were no great female war painters: the case of Taniguchi Fumie', Bijutsu Techo, November 2017, Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, pp. 102-103.

Kitahara, Megumi, "Taniguchi Fumie's Artwork and Footprints (1910-2001): Living in 'Modernity' and 'Tradition'", in Kitahara, Megumi (ed.), Special Issue on Taniguchi Fumie: Essays and Materials, Osaka University, Faculty of Letters, 2018. Kitahara Laboratory, January 2018.

External links

Taniguchi Senka and Funada Tamaki: Collection Exhibition 3, 2014 - Kure City Museum of Art, 2014

Kure City Museum of Art 35th Anniversary Exhibition - Kure City Museum of Art, 2018

Category: 20th-century Japanese female artists 20th-century Japanese female painters Japanese-American artists Showa-era painters Japanese painters pre-war Japanese women Tokyo-born person born 1910 died 2001 paintings of beautiful women