2023 will mark the 100 year anniversary of when Yokoyama Taikan first exhibited his sumi-e masterpiece titled Metempsychosis or The Wheel of Life (生々流転) at the 10th Inten exhibition Takenodai Exhibition Hall in Ueno, Tokyo. Only hours after the exhibition opened the Great Kanto Earthquake occurred. Taikan himself hurried to retrieve and save the scroll. It is now displayed at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (the MOMAT) and has been designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan since 1967.
Metempsychosis is a 40 meter long silk scroll painted in various shades of black sumi ink. It is so long that the entire scroll is rarely shown in its entirety. Sometimes the MOMAT only shows segments and small portions of the piece. Although I have never seen it myself, I can imagine that viewing it would be an overwhelming experience, akin to the awe-inspiring moments of walking into a fully frescoed chapel, like the Scrovegni or the Brancacci.
Taikan was in his mid fifites when he painted Metempsychosis and was considered a leading painter of the Japanese Nihonga movement. At the same time, Taikan’s style was often pejoratively referred to as mōrōtai, because of its softness and use of tonal washes instead of clear outlines to define form. When much of Japanese art from ukiyo-e woodblock prints to traditional, Chinese influenced ink painting was based around the clarity of the line, this approach was frequently attacked. Still, it was clear in the artistic circles from Tokyo to Kyoto that Taikan had a distinct, artistic voice and he was sent on foreign trips as a cultural ambassador of Japan, including India and Italy (where he said he was struck by Leonardo’s sfumato technique).
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