Georges Ferdinand Bigot

Georges Ferdinand Bigot

By Yui Yamamoto

Life of my focus person

Most Japanese people have seen before the picture called “gyou fu no ri (漁夫の利)”. It is one of Bigot’s masterpieces which shows the complicated international situation among Japan, China, Russia and Korea. It is drawn by a famous French cartoonist, Georges Bigot. Bigot was born and raised in Paris and learned at École des Beaux-Arts. After he started working as an illustrator, he was interested in “Japonisme” and decided to come to Japan in 1882. He learned Japanese and lived in Japanese community and frequented red-light districts (yukaku gayoi) to know more about Japan.

Although Bigot is generally known for cartoons in Japan, there are plenty of genre paintings which showed daily life and social conditions faithfully at Meiji period. For example, in a drawing of voting, there are many Japanese men in Western clothes who have Western hairstyles or mustaches. It showed that only high-class men had voting rights and participated in political events. The most significant point of this picture is a man who is wearing Kimono and has a Japanese topknot. His style is really rare in that situation, as can be seen from other men. A cartoon magazine produced and released by Bigot, called “TÔBAÉ”, was published for foreign residents in 1887. It was organized his critics such as the Japanese government. At present, those works are really important historical materials.


Summary of discussion

Q1. What do you think / how do you feel about his drawings?

Q2. Imagine if you were Bigot, what would you draw about present Japan?

Initially, listeners were impressed by the works especially cartoons for the first question. They had same opinions as mine that the pictures explained as they are. I thought that they have already known his works so it was easy to think. Although the second question was a little bit tricky for them, we could share some ideas at the end of the discussion. Most of them talked about Japanese problems such as Fukushima problems, the relationships between Japan and the U.S. and so on. On the other hand, only few ideas about our present daily lives were shared. I thought that it was not easy for us to see ourselves as others see us.


Reflection on person and project

Through this project, I learned that Bigot had really critical eyes. At first, I did not know that he drew various works as well as cartoons. For example, there are “Japanese” who he admired in his genre pictures. Also, they showed real daily lives in Meiji period. Therefore, I realized again how he saw Japan clearly, calmly and carefully. I am surprised that we are in the same situation of his works. In fact, there are plenty of types of media and they are playing a major role in the sharing of information. However, the government is still strict about them even though Japanese people want to know the truth. I think the picture shows us that it is significant to have various “eyes” on your mind.


References

Shimizu, Isao. 2001. Bigot ga mita Nihonjin. Tokyo: Kodansha

Shimizu, Isao. 2006. Bigot ga mita Meiji Nppon. Tokyo: Kodansha

Georges Ferdinand Bigot

Georges Ferdinand Bigot

By Hatsumi Yoshino

His background

Have you ever heard the name Georges Bigot, or seen his art works? He was famous as an artist and a cartoonist. He was born in 1860 in France. His mother graduated from a famous artist school and he lived around arts so he was interested in arts and paintings. After graduating from art school, he met a French artist known to be a Japanese art enthusiast and he learned about Japanese arts or Japan from him so he became interested in them. In 1882, he came to Japan and he worked at Japanese military as a foreigner employee. After that, he taught French at Nakae Chomin’s school and he contacted Chomin’s apprentices, so he learned of campaign for democratic rights. Because of this experience, he began painting critical cartoons. In 1887, he published “TOBAE” to criticize Japanese government for foreigners living in Japan. In 1893, before coming back France, he moved to Inage, Chiba and in same year he followed Japanese military to record Sino- Japanese war. In 1889, he came back France.

Three elements influenced his life. First is his mother and his friend, second is Nakae Chomin and third is Sino-Japanese war. I suggested that the first influence was his mother and his friend. His mother graduated from a famous art school so he was interested in arts. When he was 8 years old, he drew states of the Paris commune. His art style of painting real life also came from this experience. In addition he met his friend who liked Japanese arts. At first when he met his friend, he was taught Japanese ukie, not critical cartoon. However he could know Japanese art, he wanted to go to Japan.

Next is Nakae Chomin. Bigot taught French in Chomin’s school. Its school was attended by students who achieved the campaign for democratic rights. So Bigot could know Japan’s politics and he began to paint critical cartoons. At that time Japanese government wanted to change a treaty between Japan and other countries. However Bigot disagreed with this opinion, and thought it was too early to change them. So he criticized Japanese government with his cartoons.

Last influence is Sino-Japanese war. Bigot followed Japanese military to record this war. He painted hospitals of the battlefield or soldiers who did trivial works. In Russo –Japan war, he was asked to paint its war.

My influence

Indiscriminate imitation

I saw Bigot's pictures when I was a junior high school student and a high school student in history classes. At first I was surprised that a foreigner painted these pictures. Because I think they could not directly criticize Japan but he painted them like a cheating. However they were true viewpoints which foreigner had. My favorite picture is “Indiscriminate imitation”. This picture shows Japanese couple wearing dress and they think this dress suits them, but two monkeys are reflected in the mirror. According to this picture, Japanese is equal to monkey and they did not really westernize. They just imitated western country. I think Bigot looked at Japan critically. Some other foreigners also expressed criticisms in their books or pictures. Bigot’s picture was easy to understand, because people who did not know English could not understand books in English, but pictures did not have letters so they could understand artist’s feelings easily.

Explaining our discussion

I would like to explain our group discussion. My first discussion question was “If you lived in that time, and you saw Bigot’s picture, what would you have felt?’ Second is “Bigot was not famous in France but he was famous in Japan, so do you think he was happy or unhappy?” Last question is “what are differences between Edoardo Chiossone [an Italian portrait artist described in other posts on this blog - Ed] and Bigot?”

First discussion question was “If you lived in that time, and you saw Bigot’s picture, what would you have felt?’ A group member said if I could understand that the pictures looked down on Japan, I would have gotten angry. Other members said they would have got angry or sad.

Second question was “Bigot was not famous in France but he was famous in Japan, so do you think he was happy or unhappy?” A member said he might have been happy because he was interested in Japan and loved Japan. In addition I explained that he got award for his picture which he painted in Inage, so after hearing this fact, members said he was so happy because he painted his favorite view in Japan, so he was happy.

Last question is “what are differences between Chiossone and Bigot?” My group member introduced Chiossone who was Italian painter and he painted Japanese good points or contributed to Japanese government. They were opposite, so what are differences? A member mentioned Bigot just joked and he did not really criticize Japan. Because he loved Japan and he wanted to introduce real Japan to foreign countries.

Thanks to this presentation, I could know details of Bigot and I want to research him more. Many foreigners who I do not know contributed to Japan. Present Japan is made by not only Japanese but also foreigners.

References

Bigot’s Wikipedia

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BB%E3%83%93%E3%82%B4%E3%83%BC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Ferdinand_Bigot