Masamu Yanase Explained

Masamu Yanase
Birth Name:Yanase Shoroku
Birth Date:January 12, 1900
Birth Place:Ehime, Japan
Death Date:May 25, 1945
Nationality:Japanese
Known For:Painting, graphic design, manga

Masamu Yanase (Japanese: 柳瀬正夢; 1900–1945; born Shōroku Yanase, Japanese: 柳瀬正六) was a Japanese visual artist.[1]

Early life

Masamu Yanase was born January 12, 1900,[2] in Ehime, Japan,[3] and his family relocated to Fukuoka where he spent his childhood until age 14. During his teenage years he changed his given name, Shōroku, to Masamu, and included the kanji character for "dream" (Japanese: 夢) into his chosen name. At the age of 14, he left his parents home in Kyushu, arriving in Tokyo. Due to lack of income, he traveled between his home and Tokyo to be able to survive. He had an innate talent for art, yet had no art-school training. His abilities allowed him to find patrons for his work, and this in turn enabled him to continue making art.

Career

His early work was in oil painting.[4] In the early 1920s he became interested in the Japanese Futurist movement, and joined the Miraiha-Bijutsu Kyokai (Futurist Art Society). He became interested in political issues, and became intrigued with the Constructivist movement, it was at that time that he joined the avant garde radical art collective, Mavo.[5]

After the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, Yanase was arrested during a round-up of radicals, which inspired him to become even more political. In response to this new radical political spirit, he discontinued painting, which he viewed as a bourgeois activity, to begin working on posters, graphics and other forms of mass communication and popular art forms such as comics and cartoons.[6] [7] In 1931, he joined the then illegal Japanese Communist Party. In 1932, he was arrested and tortured by the Special Higher Police on suspicion of violating the Peace Preservation Law. His social commentary cartoons were published in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. Some of Yananse's manga drawings were inspired by the German artist, George Grosz, as in the 1924 manga, The Face of the Bourgeoise Composed out of (the works of) Grosz.[8] [9]

Yanase had a comprehensive one person retrospective exhibition entitled "Yanase Masamu: A Retrospective 1900–1945" at The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama that included over 500 of his works.[10]

Collections

Yanase's work is held in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Art in Japan.[11] The Ohio State University has several of his works held in their Manga Collection.[12] Several of his posters are held in the Tokyo Mushashinoa Art University Collection.[13] His work is held in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama.[14] Two books with illustrations by Yanase are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston permanent collection.[15]

Death

Yanase was killed at the west exit of Shinjuku station during the Yamanote Air Raid on May 25, 1945.[16]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Hammond . Jeff Michael . The many reinventions of Masamu Yanase . 1 August 2020 . The Japan Times . 12 March 2014.
  2. Web site: Yanase, Masamu, 1900-1945 . Library of Congress . 1 August 2020.
  3. Web site: Yanase Masamu 1900–1945, A Retrospective: The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama . MoMA, Hayama . 1 August 2020.
  4. Book: Yanase Masabu Zenshū = Masamu Yanase / Yanase Masamu ; Yanase Masamu Zenshū Kankō Iinkai hen . 9784906943340 . 1 August 2020 . 柳瀬正夢 . December 2013 . 三人社 .
  5. Web site: Yanase Masamu: 1900-1945 / henshū Kitakyūshū Shiritsu Bijutsukan . Smithsonian Libraries . 1 August 2020.
  6. Web site: Nejikugi no gaka: botsugo shijūgonen Yanase Masamu ten / (henshū Yanase Masamu Sakuhin Seiri Iinkai. }
  7. Web site: Musan kaikyū no gaka georuge gurossu / Yanase Masamu 無産階級の画家ゲオルゲ。グロッス / 柳瀬正夢著 . Ohio State University Manga Collection . Ohio State University . 1 August 2020.
  8. Book: Bevan . Paul . 'Intoxicating Shanghai' – An Urban Montage: Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines during Shanghai's Jazz Age . 14 April 2020 . Brill . Leiden . 9789004428737 . 121–123 . 1 August 2020.
  9. Book: Keiko . Ishida. Jeong-hee Lee-Kalisch . Lee-Kalisch . Jeong-hee . Bergmann . Annegret . The Reception of George Grosz in Japan During the 1920s and 1930s, in the book, Transcultural Intertwinements in East Asian Art and Culture, 1920s–1950s . 2018 . Freie Universität . Berlin, Germany . 978-3-89739-904-4 . 1 August 2020.
  10. Web site: Masamu Yanse 1900–1945: Drawing the Light and Shadow of an Era . Tokyo Art Beat . 1 August 2020.
  11. Web site: YANASE, Masamu 1900 - 1945; The Port of Moji, 1919 . 1 August 2020.
  12. Web site: Yanase, Masamu, 1900-1945 (16 works held in the Manga Collection . Ohio State University . 1 August 2020.
  13. Web site: Yanase Masamu 1900-1945 (Japanese) Poster for a Proletarian Newspaper 1927 . 1 August 2020.
  14. Web site: Yanase, Masamu: Still Life Lily . Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama . 1 August 2020.
  15. Web site: Shikei senkoku (Death Sentence) . Museum of Fine Arts Collection . 1 August 2020.
  16. Web site: Yanase Masamu Chronology. Musansha (publisher of the Collected Works of Yanasae Masamu). February 7, 2022.

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