Ernest F. Fenollosa

Ernest Fenollosa

by Yusuke Suzuki

Introduction

Do you know Ernest Fenollosa? He was a non-Japanese who most loved the Japanese art in the world. He was a professor of philosophy and political economy at Tokyo Imperial University. As you can see, he was not related to art. In addition, he was not artist, and he had not done the art since 24 years old. However, he will be protecting the Japanese art from Japanese throughout history. That’s such unbelievable thing, because why did non-Japanese people protect the Japanese art from Japanese? It has a very shocking reason.

Personal History

Ernest Fenollosa was born in U.S in 1853. He was a very smart person. He studied philosophy and sociology at Harvard College, and he graduated at the top of the class. Then, he became interested in the art little by little.

After graduating, he was 24 years old; He went to the art school attached to Boston museum. However, his father committed suicide in the next year. He got shock, and he left the U.S and came to Japan. After coming to Japan, he came across the Japanese statue of Buddha, and Ukiyoe “浮世絵” (woodblock prints - Ed) immediately. Ironically, if his father had not died, he might not have come to Japan. In Japan, he taught political economy and philosophy at Tokyo Imperial University as a hired foreigner (oyatoi-gaikokujin) and investigated the Japanese art.

His Achievements

His biggest achievement was protecting Japanese art from a stupid Japanese movement. The Meiji government destroyed Japanese art after the Meiji Restoration, and in particular so many of statues of Buddha and Buddhist pictures were scrapped. That movement was called Haibutsu-Kisyaku “廃仏毀釈”. So many statues and pictures were scrapped, temples were destroyed, and Buddhist priests were forced to change a job by the government during the movement. It is like we were prohibited from eating Japanese food at this time. That’s so terrible. I can’t stand it. However, Japanese people did it at that time.

As a result, Japan lost huge amount of cultural assets. Meiji government was on the point of giving the power to the Shinto and Meiji Emperor. So, they prohibited the Buddhism. It was the reason why this movement was happened. Japanese denied its own culture. That is so ridiculous. I was also shocked at this happening, the same as Fenollosa.

Fenollosa gave an impassioned speech about the wonderfulness of Japanese art for Japanese and tried to create a movement. It took a long time. However, many Japanese noticed that by his effort. His passion for the Japanese art is so strong. For example, He named his son “Kano”. It means Japanese famous Japanese art denomination “Kano-ha” “狩野派”. In addition, he changed his religion from Christian to Buddhist. That is amazing.

Conclusion

I was glad to know about Fenollosa, because I like Japanese culture very much. Japanese art is so touching work and beautiful. Recently, I heard many times that many other countries' tourists are interested in Japanese culture and art. If Fenollosa hadn't come to Japan, Japanese culture might be changed. Fenollosa is the hero of Japanese art.

References

Bungei jankii paradaisu [Literary Junkie Paradise], (n.d.). Nihon no onjin Fenerosa [A benefactor of Japan, Fenollosa]. Retrieved 19 January 2015, from http://kajipon.sakura.ne.jp/kt/haka-topic36.html 

Ernest Fenollosa

Ernest Fenollosa

By Aoi Hirata

Introduction

Do you think what Japanese culture is? When you introduce Japan to foreigners, what do you show them? Perhaps, we think of the historical arts as one of important parts of culture. However, about 150 years ago, a movement to destroy so many of those arts was started by Meiji government because Japan thought their culture was inferior to western one and followed them to renew Japan. During this movement, called Haibutsu-kishaku, one American whose name was Ernest Fenollosa dedicated his life to rescuing Japanese arts.


Personal history

Fenollosa was born in USA, and he was a very smart person. He graduated from Harvard University and his major was political economy there. Since that time, he had interest in art, and then entered an art school in Boston. In 1878, after he graduated from there, he came to Japan to teach economy and philosophy at Tokyo University. Then he was attracted by Japanese arts a lot; however, Japan had been active in haibutsu-kishaku movement which was belief that increased respects for God instead of destroy Buddhism during his staying. He worked on activities to protect art from such a violent movement. As example, he rescued some pictures by famous Japanese artists and sent them to Boston museum. Still, some people today criticize this action, saying that he just contributed to his wallet because he could actually get a lot of money from it.


Discussion

Then, I asked my group members two questions “Do you think such Japanese art should be in Japan?” and “Do you agree with him or not?” To the first question, one student answered that it depends on the reputation of pictures because if they can attract foreigners, it will affect Japanese popularity too. Otherwise if they would not be valued in other countries, they should be in Japan today. On the other hand, there was an opinion that arts should be in Japanese museum. We have learned Japanese history with pictures since we were in elementary school, but it is difficult to see some of them because Japan does not have them. In her opinion, they should be in Japan for Japanese to see. Next, about the second question, most people agreed with his work for Japanese arts. One of my classmates felt that even though he got money, those pictures exist today. We should notice how precious that truth is.


Reflection

From this discussion, I think Fenollosa did well in total. I feel sorry that Japanese could not save our culture and be proud of it because I think culture is built by history of all people's lives. In that confusion of history, various eyes from abroad let people realize later what was Japan and what great things we had. Without Fenollosa, we could not have learned some important piece of Japanese history. Therefore, we needed him.


References

Wikipedia. Ernest Fenollosa. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Fenollosa

近影. Bungei-Jankie paradice Retrieved from http://kajipon.sakura.ne.jp/kt/haka-topic36.html