Edoardo Chiossone

Edoardo Chiossone

By Miku Yoshida

Introduction

Do you know who drew the well-known portrait of Saigo Takamori that we have seen on our history textbooks? At the time, Japan had trouble with printing skills and taking photos. Japan did not have good printing skills, so they turned to Germany to help issue Japanese paper money. However, it was very costly. Then, Japan looked for a person who could lead Japanese printing technology in order to make money domestically. Japan finally met the Italian artist Edoardo Chiossone, who was invited to Japan as a foreign government advisor (お雇い外国人) and he made Japanese printing skills or production skills elevate to world-class levels.

Achievements

Edoardo Chiossone was credited with three major achievements. One of his achievements was education for young generation. His knowledge and technology were passed on to young generation and they promoted Japanese printing skills. The next one was building up a foundation of Japanese printing skills. At the time, Japan did not have skills to make paper money themselves, so domestic manufacture of paper money was a big challenge for Japan. Chiossone gave technical guidance to Japanese national printing bureau, and he manufactured various postal stamps, made paper money and portraits.

The third achievement is that he gave us facial impressions of historical personages thorough portraits in our history textbook. He drew many portraits and many of his works used in textbooks are famous among a wide range of people. Also, he has an interesting episode about the well-known portrait of Saigo Takamori. Actually, the portrait was drawn by Chiossone six years after Saigo passed away and he had never met Saigo before. Plus, there were no pictures of Saigo. That is why he combined the features of Saigo's younger brother (西郷従道) and his cousin (大山巌). So, it is said that Saigo's wife commented that the portrait does not look like him at all when she looked at it. Even thought the portrait does not present his real face, people think Saigo's face is like that. Chiossone keeps influencing people though his works.

Important points of our discussion

Q1. Japan was developed by other country’s help, especially in Meiji period. How do you feel about this? Is your impression negative or positive?

We had both positive and negative answers. Japan introduced Western culture and technology and then they became significant factors for Japan to develop many aspects of Japan. Western countries inspired Japan and Japan discovered new horizons. However, on the negative side, Japan looked like she was just following Western countries and had lost her identity. So, as a solution taking in both negative and positive ideas, Japan can combine Western and Japanese things, and Japan can use Western things as a trigger for Japan's new ideas in order to remake Western things into Japanese original things.

Q2. If he had not come to Japan, what would have happened to Japanese production skills? Would there have been any problems?

In the discussion, we had the same answer for Question 2. We felt he significantly promoted Japan, so Japan could not have got an opportunity for progress if Chiossone had not come to Japan. He was the first person to use portraits on paper money in Japan, so we would not have recent paper money without him. He has a important influence on Japan.

My reflection

Through this research, I learned many things, such as Japanese paper money history, real story of portraits which I saw in textbooks and so on. Also, I was impressed to know how significant non-Japanese people's power is. For example, thanks to Chiossone, Japan developed her printing technology and other important skills. It could be said that he contributed to make Japan's today possible. From this research, I got a chance to think about Japanese future and relation with other countries.


References

Asia-Europe Museum Network. (2014) .Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art, Italy
http://asemus.museum/museum/museo-darte-orientale-edoardo-chiossone/

馬込と大田区の歴史を保存する会(2008)日本に骨を埋めたお雇い外国人　エドアルド・キヨッソーネ
http://www.photo-make.jp/hm_2/ma_21.html

こや(2014)幕末・明治の“顔”を描いたのはイタリア人だった
http://www.excite.co.jp/News/bit/00091100601863.html

明治美術学会/印刷局朝陽会編(中央公論美術出版　1999年)
「お雇い外国人キヨッソーネ研究」

柏木博　（講談社学術文庫 2000年　平凡社　1987年）
「肖像のなかの権力 　近代日本のグラフィズムを読む」