Ernest Fenollosa

Ernest Fenollosa

By Yumi Okumura

Do you know the person who protected Japanese art? It was Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, an American philosopher and eastern art historian. In Meiji period, he came to Japan as an oyatoi gaikokujin [Editor's note: a hired foreign expert], and then he was fascinated with Japanese art. However, soon he was shocked that people didn’t treat Japanese art works as important things, so he tried to protect Japanese art. In his life, he visited Japan four times. In this essay, I will talk about three things; how Fenollosa loved Japanese art, how he affected people, and how he tried to protect Japanese art.

At first, I’ll introduce that Fenollosa really liked Japanese art. After he came to Japan, he was interested in Japanese art like an image of Buddha and Ukiyoe, so he started traveling old temples in all parts of the country. Also, he began collecting and studying old art works. Finally, he could collect about 20,000 Japanese art works, and now these are kept in Boston art museum. He wanted to know Japanese art and culture, so he learned Noh plays (能楽) and stayed at a teahouse. In addition, he became a pupil of Minoru Umewaka and decided to convert from Christianity to Buddhism. The more he knew about Japan, the more he loved Japanese art.

Next, I’ll talk that what effect Fenollosa had on people. At that time, Japanese people thought western art was superior to Japanese one. Then Fenollosa made a speech and changed people’s thinking. This speech was printed and handed out to all parts of Japan by new government. Fenollosa influenced many people, but especially, he really affected one person, Hōgai Kano. When Fenollosa went to the first contest of Japanese paintings, he was moved by a painting which Hōgai Kano painted. Though Hōgai refused to meet Fenollosa, Fenollosa went to Hōgai’s house every day and finally Hōgai met him. After Fenollosa could meet Hōgai, he supported Hōgai’s living and promised to buy all paintings which Hōgai drew, and gave advice about adding new style of painting. Later, Hōgai Kano became a pioneer of modern Japanese paintings.

Lastly, I’ll show how Fenollosa protected Japanese art. When he came to Japan, there was anti Buddhist movement(廃仏毀釈). People tended to break images of Buddha, temples and shrines. Fenollosa was shocked by that, so he asked Ministry of Education to create an art investigation committee. He searched more than about 450 art works and about sixty shrines and temples. Based on this investigation, the Ancient Temples and Shrines Protection Law was issued. Also, it triggered the idea of the National treasure. This notion, national treasure, was Fenollosa's. Now in Japan, there are 217 buildings and 871 art works and these are protected so that they are not lost.

In conclusion, Fenollosa found the worth of Japanese art works earlier than Japanese people at that time. Some people say that in collecting them, he drained important art works overseas. However, these still remain without being broken because Fenollosa collected them. If he had done nothing, these art works may not exist now, so Fenollosa was a benefactor of Japanese art.

References

“Ernest Fenollosa”(2013)-Wikipedia. Retrieved 2013.1.23. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8D%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A7%E3%83%8E%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B5

“National treasue”(2013)-Wikipedia. Retrieved 2013.1.23. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%9D

日本の恩人 フェノロサ-Retrieved 2013.1.23. http://kajipon.sakura.ne.jp/kt/haka-topic36.html

Ernest Fenollosa

One of the famous
artworks, “Hibokannon”

By Yoshihiro Isogaya

Wherever you go in Japan, you’ll always see temples, shrines or images of Buddha. Because they are so famous now you’ll think it has been that way all the time, but actually it was the opposite. A lot of Japanese people had no interest in their own arts at that time. Some were even taken down because of that. How did their mind change from not having any interest to having interest? It’s all because of a man whose name was Ernest Fenollosa.

When he was 17, he entered Harvard University to study philosophy. He graduated Harvard University with the highest score. After he graduated, at the age of 24 he entered an art school which was built newly at the Boston Art Museum since at this time he started to have interests in arts.

In 1878 his father couldn’t get familiar with the society and killed himself. Because he lost his mother when he was 13, he lost both of his parents with this tragedy. After this tragedy, like fate, an opportunity came along: he found out that Tokyo University was looking for people to hire. Because of all he’d been through, he thought that it was his destiny to find out about that and from that he decided to go to Japan to teach.

After he went to Japan, he became to be interested in the image of Buddha and the art of Japanese woodblock prints. So he began to collect and study about historic arts all over Japan. Later on while he was studying about Japanese arts he found out something that he couldn’t believe. With all the great arts the Japanese had, almost none of the Japanese had interest nor thought their own art was important such as temples and images of Buddha. He was really shocked about that. Even some of the temples and images of Buddha were taken down because of that. To try to change this situation he started a campaign to tell the Japanese people how beautiful Japanese art is. He told them why they are so beautiful and important. Because of that he was able to change the minds of the people how they thought of their own art and he succeeded to make it the way it is now. It is now the most famous art in the world and all the people know how important it is now because of what he did for it.

He didn’t just help the Japanese art not to die but he also found the real artist, “Kanou Hougai”. He was an artist but he wasn’t famous at all because nobody had any interest in his arts, but Ernest found his art and he decided to talk him into making an art which became a real famous art later on even now. If Ernest didn’t find him this art would’ve never existed and Japanese art wouldn’t have been this famous all over the world. With all that he did it made a lot of difference and I wish more people in Japan knew about this.


Reference list

Ernest Fenollosa. (n. d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 09/01/2014 from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8D%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A7%E3%83%8E%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B5

Nihon no onzin Fenollosa [Fenollosa the Japan’s benefactor]. (n. d.) Retrieved on 09/01/2014: http://kajipon.sakura.ne.jp/kt/haka-topic36.html