COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
mediaCollectionId
AMICO~1~1
The AMICA Library
Collection
true
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1980.177
amicoid
CMA_.1980.177
AMICA ID
false
AMICA Library Year:
1998
aly
1998
AMICA Library Year
false
Object Type:
Paintings
oty
Paintings
Object Type
false
Creator Name:
Watanabe, Kazan
crn
Watanabe, Kazan
Creator Name
false
Creator Nationality:
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
crc
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
Creator Nationality
false
Creator Role:
artist
crr
artist
Creator Role
false
Creator Dates/Places:
1793 - 1841
cdt
1793 - 1841
Creator Dates/Places
false
Gender:
M
cgn
M
Gender
false
Creator Name-CRT:
Kazan Watanabe
crt
Kazan Watanabe
Creator Name-CRT
false
Title:
Portrait of Ozora Buzaemon
otn
Portrait of Ozora Buzaemon
Title
false
Title Type:
Primary
ott
Primary
Title Type
false
View:
Full View
rid
Full View
View
false
Creation Date:
1827
oct
1827
Creation Date
false
Creation Start Date:
1827
ocs
1827
Creation Start Date
false
Creation End Date:
1827
oce
1827
Creation End Date
false
Materials and Techniques:
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
omd
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Materials and Techniques
false
Dimensions:
Image: 221.3cm x 117.6cm, Overall: 257.8cm x 139.7cm
met
Image: 221.3cm x 117.6cm, Overall: 257.8cm x 139.7cm
Dimensions
false
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
oon
The Cleveland Museum of Art
AMICA Contributor
false
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
oop
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Owner Location
false
ID Number:
1980.177
ooa
1980.177
ID Number
false
Credit Line:
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
ooc
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
Credit Line
false
Rights:
orl
<a href="http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html"target="_new">http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html</a>
Rights
false
Context:
Watanabe Kazan enjoyed the exalted social status of being born into the samurai class, yet he suffered from poverty during his entire lifetime. Indeed, nineteenth-century Japan was a period of social and economic turbulence, and government officials frequently found it impossible to support themselves on an annual stipend. Kazan's predicament was exacerbated by his talent and his intellect. As a young man he excelled in his studies of the Chinese and Japanese classics, and this traditional course propelled him into an examination of Western ideas, which were popular at the time but officially censored by the seclusionist military government. Stifled economically and intellectually by the status quo, Kazan pursued a career as a painter to support himselfbut also followed his interests in the outside world. Realizing Japan's weakened position in a rapidly modernizing world order, he openly proclaimed the country's need to secure its own interests while it entered the international arena of world affairs.Not embraced by the government, his views instead led to his arrest, exile, and eventual suicide. Kazan met Ozorabuzaemon in Edo where the young man from the distant provinces had traveled with his feudal lord in hope of becoming a sumo wrestler. His gigantic size and shy country manners attracted great curiosity in urban Edo. These features are recorded in Kazan's sketch portrait, done when he met Ozorabuzaemon in the summer of 1827 at a friend's house. In addition to the various statistics recorded in the inscription is an actual impression of the giant's handprint, testimony to the era's keen interest in the documentation of natural phenomena
la Western scientific methods currently in vogue in Japan. Kazan's portrayal, beginning with the preliminarydrawing lines, which are still visible, is poignantly sympathetic and intense. It uses the informality of the assembled paper sheets, sketchily brushed lines, and then transparent ink washes to convey the psychological fragility of the subject and, in a way, the artist's own condition. M.R.C.
cxd
Watanabe Kazan enjoyed the exalted social status of being born into the samurai class, yet he suffered from poverty during his entire lifetime. Indeed, nineteenth-century Japan was a period of social and economic turbulence, and government officials frequently found it impossible to support themselves on an annual stipend. Kazan's predicament was exacerbated by his talent and his intellect. As a young man he excelled in his studies of the Chinese and Japanese classics, and this traditional course propelled him into an examination of Western ideas, which were popular at the time but officially censored by the seclusionist military government. Stifled economically and intellectually by the status quo, Kazan pursued a career as a painter to support himselfbut also followed his interests in the outside world. Realizing Japan's weakened position in a rapidly modernizing world order, he openly proclaimed the country's need to secure its own interests while it entered the international arena of world affairs.Not embraced by the government, his views instead led to his arrest, exile, and eventual suicide. Kazan met Ozorabuzaemon in Edo where the young man from the distant provinces had traveled with his feudal lord in hope of becoming a sumo wrestler. His gigantic size and shy country manners attracted great curiosity in urban Edo. These features are recorded in Kazan's sketch portrait, done when he met Ozorabuzaemon in the summer of 1827 at a friend's house. In addition to the various statistics recorded in the inscription is an actual impression of the giant's handprint, testimony to the era's keen interest in the documentation of natural phenomena
la Western scientific methods currently in vogue in Japan. Kazan's portrayal, beginning with the preliminarydrawing lines, which are still visible, is poignantly sympathetic and intense. It uses the informality of the assembled paper sheets, sketchily brushed lines, and then transparent ink washes to convey the psychological fragility of the subject and, in a way, the artist's own condition. M.R.C.
Context
false
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1980.177.tif
ril
CMA_.1980.177.tif
Related Image Identifier Link
false