Georges Ferdinand Bigot

By Hikari Kozono

Background

Have you ever heard of a non-Japanese painter who drew not only luxury life of Japanese upper class but also ordinary life of masses? Georges Ferdinand Bigot was the French painter who depicted Japan in Meiji period. He really liked beauty of Japan and Japanese people. He was born in France in 1860. His mother encouraged him into art. At the age of twelve, he was accepted by the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was trained by artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Carolus-Duran. He was interested in Japonism and Japanese art by number of collectors of Japanese art in school and he decided to work as an illustrator of newspaper to pay for the trip to Japan. 

He came to Japan at the beginning of the Meiji-era to study Japanese and Japanese art. After that he worked at the imperial Japanese army academy where he taught water color paintings to his students as an Oyatoi Gaikokuzin [Editor's note: a non-Japanese person employed by the Japanese government to teach necessary skills for Japan's modernisation] for 2 years. After he was done with his teaching job, he was allowed to stay in Japan by drawing pictures for French people in Japan. Eventually, his works became popular among those who were interested in Japanese life and against revision of treaty. His main customers were French people who lived in the foreign settlement Japan. However many of them were opposed to revision of treaty and went back to their home countries. That made Bigot worried about losing a lot of his customers. He also worked as a journalist by drawing scenes he saw but since photo technology developed at this time, his work gradually decreased. He thought it would be difficult to publish magazines freely in Japan and decided to go back to France. Before he went back to France, he divorced to his Japanese wife Masu Sano. In France he kept working as a painter for some French magazines and newspapers. He died in 1927 while he was walking in the Japanese style garden in his house.

Satirical cartoon

Although his first interest in Japanese art was Japonism, his main style of painting was satirical cartoons. Satire means to use humor to show how foolish some people’s behavior or ideas are. He mostly illustrated scenes of everyday Japanese life of masses and upper class but also ridiculed Japanese politicians, revision of treaty, and what he felt to be too much westernization in Japan in his famous satirical newspaper, Tobae. He published it for French people who lived in Japan but he put Japanese captions on his works in order to impress Japanese journalists, and sent them to Japanese newspaper publishing companies. He watched Japan’s rapid westernization with a mixture of curiosity and affection, producing a lot of pictures of the scenes he saw and tried to introduce these to the West.

Affection for Japan

While Bigot criticized too much westernization in Japan, he loved and respected Japanese tradition, culture and the everyday life of ordinary people. He especially expressed affection towards Japanese woman who are calm and obedient to men. In Tobae, he wrote “The best thing in Japan is women. Japanese women should keep being Japanese.” It is said that Bigot saw Japanese women as symbol of Japanese tradition. The picture below is the one of his satirical cartoons about westernized Japanese called “Rokumeikan’s lady”. He depicted westernized upper class Japanese women smoking in the dance hall as looking like monkeys. 

Bigot could draw pictures from the same point of view to Japanese masses. That is because he assimilated into Japanese masses easily by living outside of foreign settlement and carefully observing Japanese ordinary life. He drew various looking Japanese unlike many painters who drew only Japanese people with glasses, slant eyes and buck teeth. I guess that would change the image of Japan for those foreigners who knew only stereotype of Japanese. Some of his work didn’t receive good evaluations because he drew too ordinary scenes. However, he definitely played an important role in telling people about real Japanese life. I think his drawings will be great resources to tell people life of Japanese masses and upper class in Meiji era.


References

Simizu, I. (December 8, 2006). Bigo ga Mita Meiji Nippon. Tokyo: Ko-dan sha

Georges Ferdinand Bigot. (December 9, 2013). Retrieved on January 23, 2014. From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Ferdinand_Bigot

Oyama Sutematu

By Yui Fukatsu

Oyama Sutematsu

Oyama Sutematsu is the lady who tried to change Japanese education because she was really interested in American life style. I chose her because I am interested in why she is not famous in Japan. This essay is focused on her back ground, her life in foreign country and her contribution to Japan’s education.

At first, I will introduce about her background. She was born on March 16th, in 1860. Her name was Saki. Her father was so rich because he was the leader of Aizu-han which was located around modern-day Fukushima. For this reason, Saki was also rich and her childhood was wealthy. However, her life’s turning point came with the Aizu war which was fought between Aizu and the government, which Aizu lost. Then, Saki entered French family as foster child because Aizu people suffered from poverty and stavation, so Saki’s family thought they could not bring her up. In 1871, Kuroda Kiyotaka wanted some men and women to go to America because women and man are equal in America. Then Saki decided to go to America because one of this project’s students was Saki’s brother Kenjiro, and she related to European lifestyle in her new family.

Next, I will talk about her life in America. She changed her name to Sutematsu. At the same time, Tsuda Umeko, who became famous for contributing Japanese education, went to America, too. I will explain about her at last part. After arriving in United States, Sutematsu grew up with the Bacon family. There she met their daughter, Alice Bacon, and they became best friends. Four years later, Sutematsu could speak English perfectly, so she entered local high school and Vassar College which is famous in America. She was so excellent and beautiful. She was first Japanese person who graduated from a US University. Then, she entered nursing school and studied a year and became interested in International Red Cross. Her dream was to establish Japanese Red Cross and advance Japanese girls’ education. Her study in United States was 11 years.

At last, I want to focus on her obsession after coming back to Japan. First of all, she really felt cramped because her lifestyle was very Americanised in terms of thinking, acting and so on. She could not write or read Kanji. In this era, there was no job for people like Sutematsu. However, when she was 23 years old she got married Oyama Iwao. Meanwhile, Meiji government made Rokumeikan for social purposes, completing it in 1883 [Editor’s note: Rokumeikan was a large Western-style building built to accommodate foreign dignitaries.It became controversial for holding extravagant banquets and balls aimed to impress visitors with Japan’s sophistication and development]. Japanese people tried to know Western culture. In this place which was to become a controversial symbol of Westernisation, many foreigners laughed at Japanese because they danced and wore clothes like clowns. However, Sutematsu was just a good Japanese person who naturally adapted to foreign culture. People called Sutematsu “The flower of Rokumeikan”.

In Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese war, her husband, Oyama, became a leader. She supported him by collecting money and taking care of veterans as a nurse. In addition, she tried to send letters to American Newspaper Company to claim that Japan’s financial difficulty. This action made American people support Japan. Also, her dream was to be a teacher and establish Japanese girl’s education. She could not relate to education because her husband worked at government. However, she didn’t give up. In this point, I will explain about Tsuda Ume as I said. She was student who went and lived America same time as Sutematsu. She studied a lot and she changed her name to Tsuda Umeko. She established a school, Jyoshi Eikakujyuku, with Alice Bacon and Sutematsu and so on. This school became bigger and bigger, and now, it is one of the biggest universities, known as Tsuda Juku University. They made an ideal school for Japanese girls. Finally, Sutematsu died because of Spanish influenza when she was 58 years old.

In conclusion, Sutematsu’s life in The United States made her dream, then her dream made Japanese girl’s education and the basis of Japanese nursing. I can say that I can study in school because of her. Especially, I was interested in her efforts. She studied a lot and she also made Japanese woman’s dream. I think her name is not so famous but we have to know her life and her dream, especially for women. In addition, I was really wonder why she is not famous in Japan. I think this is because Tsuda Umeko is more famous than Sutematsu, perhaps because her activities cannot be summarized in just one word. For example, Tsuda studied abroad and established university. However, Sutematsu did many things like nursing, studying abroad, explaining Red Cross in Japan, becoming famous in Rokumeikan, and establishing a university. She did many, small things. I want many Japanese people to know about her.


References

Kuno, A. (1993). “Rokumeikan no kifujin –nihon hatu no jyoshi ryugakusei [the lady of Rokumeikan- the first girl exchange student]. 1993/05. Tokyo: Chuo Koron-sha

“Tuda umeko”.(2013)- Wikipedia. Retrieved 2013.07.22 from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B4%A5%E7%94%B0%E6%A2%85%E5%AD%90

“Ooyama sutematsu”. (2013)- Wikipedia 2013.07.22
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%B1%B1%E6%8D%A8%E6%9D%BE