"Kyoto Art Nouveau" by the Enigmatic Kobayashi Kaiichi and the Evolution of Japanese Prints

A work by Ando Hiroshige from the series “One Hundred Views of Edo”, 1856

When it comes to Japanese prints, the memories of most connoisseurs of Japanese culture immediately flash with colorful ukiyo-e – woodblock prints of the Edo period (1603-1868), painting bright pictures of urban life and everyday life. This is not surprising – it was the West that “discovered” ukiyo-e and proclaimed them a masterpiece of fine art. After all, paradoxically, contemporary Japanese did not consider these prints to be high art at all.

Lovers Walking in the Snow, Suzuki Harunobu (1764-1772)

The ukiyo-e technique was created in the 17th century and was mainly developed in the 18th century (colored prints, nishiki-e, became widespread only in the middle of this century; before that, they were mostly black and white or hand-colored). It was then that urban culture flourished in Japan — the times were relatively calm and peaceful, many people flocked to the local “megalopolises” (primarily Edo and Osaka), and the city dwellers’ need for entertainment grew stronger. In addition, people wanted to surround themselves with beautiful things, although previously only the aristocracy had access to such luxury. Thanks to this, “low” urban forms of art for the amusement of the crowd were actively developing, including, for example, light literature and action-packed plays and shows.

Scene from Life in Yoshiwara (Red Light District), Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694)

Ukiyo-e is a shining example of this very entertaining culture, and in addition to the aesthetic function, they also played a utilitarian role. Ukiyo-e artists illustrated popular books and travel guides, drew event posters and advertising posters, created board game designs, caricatures and cartoons, portraits of famous courtesans and kabuki actors (just like modern celebrity posters!), erotic prints with scenes from the life of the red-light district were also popular – they were, among other things, a kind of textbooks on carnal pleasures. The prints were accessible, easily reproduced, enjoyed great popularity, but at the same time were not considered part of art, just as we generally do not consider the covers of modern fiction to be high art.

Beauties of Yoshiwara by Kitao Masanobu (1761–1816)

Women in a Kimono Shop, Suzuki Harunobu, 1765

When Western art came into fashion in Japan with the advent of the Meiji era (1868-1912) and photography and industrial printing technologies began to spread, ukiyo-e quickly declined and ceased to play a prominent role in the lives of the Japanese… But these prints were unexpectedly appreciated by the West.

Meiji Westernization in Toyohara Chikanobu's Woodblock Prints: Western Clothing, Interiors, and Household Items Come into Fashion in Japan

At the same time that everything “Western” was becoming fashionable in Japan, Japanese art objects (color prints, porcelain, screens, kimonos, lacquerware, etc.) caused a real sensation in the West, which were demonstrated to the public during the World Exhibition in London (1862) and the World Exhibition in Paris (1878). Europe was captivated by the originality and exoticism of Eastern art, including prints, appeared. They inspired the most famous artists of that time, for example, Vincent Van Gogh and Edouard Manet. This passion even received its own name in the history of art: “Japonism”. The Japanese were quite surprised by such excitement: sometimes ukiyo-e was used as wrapping paper when transporting porcelain, and this demonstrates the attitude of Japanese contemporaries to this type of art.

"Japanese" (Portrait of Camille Monet in Japanese Costume), Claude Monet, 1876 and “Portrait of Père Tanguy” by Vincent van Gogh, 1887 — “Japanese Woman” (Portrait of Camille Monet in Japanese Costume), Claude Monet, 1876 and “Portrait of Père Tanguy” by Vincent van Gogh, 1887

But demand creates supply! In response to Western interest, the fading tradition of ukiyo-e received a second wind – at the beginning of the 20th century, the movement “sin-hanga” (ukiyo-e of the new wave) was born. The creators of this art school created prints mainly focusing on export, so they often adapted their works to the tastes of the Western public and included in their style techniques that were not typical for classical Japanese prints (for example, through the play of light or angles). In the domestic market, shin-hanga did not arouse public interest – the Japanese of that time considered oil paintings in the Western style to be high art, and Art Nouveau was widely spread in the field of mass art.

Hasui Kawase. Itsukushima Shrine. Winter, 1932

In addition to shin-hanga, the sosaku-hanga movement emerged in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century, in which artists abandoned the old system of joint creativity of the artist, carver, printer and publisher, and took on the entire process of creating an engraving themselves. This was a logical step towards rethinking engraving in Japan as a work of art, and not part of mass production. In addition, independent creativity brings the artist's self-expression to the forefront: already from the Meiji era, interest in individualism and the desire of creators to express their “I” through creativity grew in Japan. Japanese contemporaries did not show much interest in sosaku-hanga – the Art Nouveau style in popular culture and oil paintings or watercolors in high culture were in great demand at that time. In the West, sosaku-hanga was noticed already in the post-war period – at the Biennial of Art in Sao Paulo in 1951, this style received worldwide recognition.

A sosaku-hanga print by Kiyoshi Saito (1907-1997)

Nevertheless, there were artists who managed to combine traditional Japanese prints with fashionable Art Nouveau trends and create a unique style that appealed to the Japanese public of that time. One of these creators is Kobayashi Kaiichi, a mysterious artist who was “rediscovered” relatively recently, at the end of the 2000s. His works are distinguished by their expressiveness, unique atmosphere and excellent work with color. Kaiichi combined traditional Japanese motifs (kimono, landscapes) with purely Western ones in his works – roses, crosses, playing cards… Moreover, he combined them with such taste that they did not look alien to each other. Kaiichi’s style is sometimes called “Kyoto Art Nouveau” in modern Japan.

The series of postcards by Kobayashi Kaishi “Week”. The pictures are not random – they are consonant with the words from which the names of the days of the week in Japan are formed (sun, moon, fire, water, wood, metal, earth)

Not much is known about the biography of Kobayashi Kaiichi (real name – Kaichiro Hayashi). He was born in Kyoto in 1896, graduated from the Kyoto College of Arts, after completing his studies he went to work in a dyeing workshop, where he designed fabric for kimonos. In parallel with his main job, Kaiichi drew postcards and bookmarks, which were sold in a Kyoto souvenir shop. Kaiichi drew sets of several postcards and an envelope for them. His works were very popular with girls – so much so that even fakes appeared on the market. Kaiichi's postcards are mentioned, for example, in one of the novels of Tanizaki Junichiro, the most famous writer of that time. The main period of the artist's work fell on the 1920-1930s.

Postcard series by Kobayashi Kaiichi “Her Youth”

By the age of 40, the artist had begun to be forgotten, and then came the war years, when the heyday of Japanese Art Nouveau predictably came to an end. The artist himself got married in 1942, had children, and concentrated on a stable job creating kimono fabric designs. He died in 1968, when his former fame had sunk into oblivion. By that time, Kaiichi's postcards were of interest only to antique lovers, and they could not always determine their authorship.

Interest in “Taisho Romanticism” flared up again in Japan in the 1990s. In 1992 and 2004, major exhibitions dedicated to Japanese modernism were held in Japan, where postcards by Kobayashi Kaichi were also exhibited… However, the artist was forgotten so much that the exhibition organizers were unable to identify them and the postcards were exhibited as “works by an unknown artist.” The name, years of life, even the gender of the artist remained a mystery to researchers.

In 2008, a visitor to an exhibition of “works by an unknown artist” at a Kyoto university found the author's signature on the envelopes familiar… At home, he did a little research and discovered that these signatures exactly matched his father's working signature on the drafts that had been preserved from his parents' home… The young man turned out to be Kobayashi's son, Kaichi, who had no idea that his father was the mysterious artist whose identity had puzzled venerable art historians! Thanks to him, the postcards were finally able to be correctly identified and the artist's biography restored.

Thus began the rediscovery of Kobayashi Kaiichi. In Japan, interest in his work was revived, including the release of albums, exhibitions and various souvenirs with the artist's illustrations. Kaiichi's postcards are still considered the finest examples of Japanese Art Nouveau.

Kobayashi Kaiichi's style has undoubtedly influenced the work of contemporary artists and designers. He became one of the central artists among those who introduced such “Gothic” Western elements into Japanese graphics as card symbols, hearts, schematic pentagonal stars, musical notes… Things that are ubiquitous in contemporary graphic design. The influence of Kaiichi's work and the foundations laid by Japanese Art Nouveau can be traced, for example, in the Sentimental Circus series of products from Sanrio.