Volume 14 of Art History Studies includes a paper by Mika Iwama, "Representations of Original Sin in Modern Japan: Ryūsei Kishida’s Acceptance and Recreation of William Blake":
Since Japan opened its borders to the rest of the world in the mid-19th century, the
country has actively ingested Western culture, not only literature and art styles, but
also religion, and has undergone rapid modernisation. Due to a lack of foundation
in Christianity and Western classicism, Japanese art in the Taishō period (1912–1926)
shows a deviated expression from Western norms. In particular, Ryūsei Kishida’s
religious paintings from the year 1914 are interesting in that they suggest a peculiar
Japanese reception of Christianity and European art at that time. In his ink on paper
Study for Striving of Humanity, Kishida referred to William Blake’s pictures and
represented Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel in a unique manner. In this work, he attributed
a celebration of productivity to Eve’s female body, related to the natural image of the
earth. The lower corpse, linked to Adam’s birth and Abel’s murder, represents the
materiality of nature that results in the extinction of the body. Kishida believed there
to be a direct connection between the qualities of nature and original sin in terms of
both bringing about new life while also leading to inevitable death. The cyclical image
of the earth in this work expresses the value of nature and original sin. Furthermore,
Kishida considered original sin to have a positive aspect, in that the spiritual conflict it
entails promotes inner growth, and nature as positive in that it provides material for art.
Projecting his self-image as an artist, Kishida portrayed Cain, who labours in the earth
and struggles with his cursed fate.
Kishida shared with the Shirakaba school the belief that sin and nature had ambivalent value. This perception was one of the typical characteristics of Romanticism in Japanese literature during the 1910s. The school praised Blake as a representative of their humanism. Kishida adopted Blake’s art as a model for the religious expression he conceptualised in the school, and Kishida’s religious paintings, which illustrate the literary thought of the early Taishō period, are notable examples of the Japanese acceptance of Christianity in the 1910s, which was tied to modern concepts of romantic love and individualism
Kishida shared with the Shirakaba school the belief that sin and nature had ambivalent value. This perception was one of the typical characteristics of Romanticism in Japanese literature during the 1910s. The school praised Blake as a representative of their humanism. Kishida adopted Blake’s art as a model for the religious expression he conceptualised in the school, and Kishida’s religious paintings, which illustrate the literary thought of the early Taishō period, are notable examples of the Japanese acceptance of Christianity in the 1910s, which was tied to modern concepts of romantic love and individualism
Mika Iwama is a member of faculty at Kobe University.
"Representations of Original Sin in Modern Japan: Ryūsei Kishida’s Acceptance and Recreation of William Blake" is available from Art History Studies (open access).