Ernest Fenellosa

Ernest Fenellosa

By Chihiro Akie

Introduction

Do you like Japanese arts? I bet perhaps most Japanese people will say “not really”. For Japanese people, art is not familiar at all. In my opinion, most museums in Japan are costly so we cannot visit easily if we are not interested in arts. However we still have many historical Japanese arts because some people tried to protect them and hand them down to posterity. I want to introduce one of those people. That person is Ernest Fenellosa.

About Ernest Fenellosa

Ernest Francisco Fenellosa was born in Massachusetts, America in 1853. He studied philosophy and sociology at Harvard College, where he graduated at the top of the class. At the time, he got interested in art so he entered the art school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. When he was 25, his father Manuel Francisco Ciriaco Fenellosa committed suicide because he could not adapt to his circumstances. According to Christianity, suicide is sin. That is why Ernest needed a new place. Fortunately, he found the information that Tokyo University was recruiting professors. After that he moved to Japan and started working as a professor of philosophy. At the same time, he was attracted by Japanese art. He started studying Japanese art. He found the fact that Japanese people did not respect their art at all which was shocking and disappointing for him. Then he decided to protect Japanese art and tell it to the World. He protected some statues of Buddha and Buddhist images.

Discussion

My discussion questions were “Have you ever been to museum?” and “Which do you like better, Japanese art or Western art?”

The first one question was because I wanted to know how much my members were familiar with art. I was surprised because two people said they have never been there. I guess that many people think art is not worth paying to view.

I expected the answer for the second one that my members would say Western art is better. However everyone answered Japanese one is more attractive which was surprising for me.

Reflection

According to this project, I learned how Japan obtained cooperation from many foreigners. Today we get inspiration from other countries, which is great thing. However I realized that we hardly explain about Japan. We need to focus on Japanese culture. Because if people pay attention to it, then it will be protected and respected. I hope that Japanese people get more interested in Japanese culture. I want to thank Mr. Fenellosa.

References
“Ernest Fenellosa”, (n.d.). In Wikipedia, accessed June, 2015 from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Fenollosa

Meijinooyatoigaikokujin, (n.d.) Ernest Francisco Fenellosa no kozai [The merits and demerits of Ernest Francisco Fenellosa] accessed June, 2015 from http://photo-make.jp/hm_2/ma_23.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