Xu Xingzhi's Memoirs No. 7
——A painting painted in Tokyo
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > reproduced from memories</h1>
The original text is in Japanese,
Published in 1982 by The Oriental Bookstore in Japan
Japan of My Youth
This article is based on Japanese translation
Xu Xingzhi, also known as Xu Kui, is a painter and historian of Western art. A native of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, he was born on April 5, 1904. He went to Japan in the summer of 1924 and studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts from 1925 to 1929. He is currently a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts of China and a director of the China Artists Association.
In the early 1980s, Xu Xingzhi sketched on the outskirts of Beijing
On an afternoon in the fall of last year (1980), while sorting through old paintings from the past, I found a study by me when I studied in Tokyo. After those difficult years before liberation and the decade of turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, this painting I have always kept with me is my earliest work. The painting, called "Late Walking," was painted in 1926 and depicts a dusk view near the SuidoBashi In Tokyo. Looking at this painting that is somewhat faded and the oil paint is a little mottled, the various scenes of life in Tokyo in those years are vividly presented in front of you. I used to walk on the nine-step ramp under the waterway bridge, and I used to party with my young classmates at the art school in Ueno Park, and many past events appeared in front of me like bright marquees and disappeared.
Xu Xingzhi's 1926 oil painting: "Late Walk - Tokyo Street Scene" part
(Collection of the Hong Kong Oriental Art Foundation)
After graduating from the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in 1923, I entered the Shanghai Oriental Art Research Association to continue my studies. Soon, I met Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, Cheng Fangwu and others, the central figures of the progressive literary group "Creation Society" at that time. They all had the experience of studying in Japan, and under the influence of these people, I also decided to go to Japan to study with excellent painters.
In the summer of 1924, I left Shanghai for Japan, and before I left, Cheng Fangwu gave me two things, one was a letter of introduction from his old classmate Tu Mo, and the other was a daily Conversation Table in Japanese. I took these two "weapons" to Japan and began a five-year study abroad life in Japan.
Starting my life in Tokyo, I found it difficult to deal with tuition fees. Before going abroad, my mother and sister sold their rings, etc., plus the support of friends, and finally made up the cost of taking the steamship. However, after I started living in Japan, I immediately ran out of money, and I felt that my living expenses were tight on the day I entered school.
In 1927, while studying in Japan, Xu Xingzhi responded to Guo Moruo's telegram and returned to China to participate in the propaganda work of the General Political Department of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which was a group photo of his friend Wu Yinxian when he had just returned to Shanghai.
Work in restaurant delivery
In the beginning, I got up early every day to deliver newspapers to people, and I had to run around delivering newspapers, so I felt that I couldn't keep up. After that, after being introduced by a friend, I worked at a Chinese restaurant in The Town of Chaofen. The restaurant was previously run by Xia Yan's cousin, Choi Shao-dun, who, upon his return home, was entrusted to a Japanese classmate he had studied at Waseda University. My job is to wash dishes and deliver takeaways, and my salary is about ten yen a month, but I can barely make ends meet because I haven't yet enrolled in school.
The restaurant is not busy from morning to night, but it is busiest when eating, so sometimes there is time to draw.
In the 1920s, the Building of the Crafts Department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts
In order to prepare for the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo University of the Arts), I was introduced by a friend to start sketching at the Kawabata School.
Kawabata Painting School is not a regular school and does not have full-time teachers. There are almost all students studying there, and there is no certain standard for tuition fees, as long as you give the teacher some money every month, you can study there freely. I studied at the Kawabata School for about half a year, and in early 1925 I took the entrance examination for the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and I said that the examination of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts was difficult, but I was very lucky that I passed the exam so that I was able to enter the school's Western painting department.
Students of Western painting at tokyo art school are in class
After entering the Tokyo Art School, I lived with Tu Mo. At that time, Tu Mo rented a single courtyard, the first floor and the second floor added up to a total of four rooms, Tu Mo and his wife lived in the second floor of the large room, I lived in the second floor of the small room. After that, Zhang Wentian's younger brother Zhang Jian'er came to Tokyo, where he lived in a small room downstairs.
Tu Mo was an expert in spices, and at that time he studied chemical spices. One day, he said to me, "Xiao Xu, don't do that job of brushing dishes, come with me to make spices." I make perfumes, alabaster and head oil, and you help me sell them. ”
I accepted his advice, quit my temporary job at the restaurant, and began to help Tu Mo sell the cosmetics he made.
Art school classes are usually only available in the morning, and I help Tu Mo make cosmetics in the afternoon and sell them in the evening.
Tu Mo wrote the product manual in Japanese, and I wrote about myself as a hard student working and studying while living. The people who read what we wrote were very sympathetic to us. The best place to sell cosmetics is the coffee shop, because there are a lot of young girls there, and they all want cheap cosmetics. At first, I was selling in the uniform of the American school, but this would quickly reveal my identity. So Tu Mo suggested that we wear Chinese robes, but the coats made of purple and blue satin were very conspicuous, and these girls felt very curious, so they surrounded us to buy cosmetics and said sarcastically: "Oh, you are beautiful Chinese men!" ”
However, the café guests who watched this scene were not very happy, because the waitresses only cared about buying their own things, and the service to them was not thoughtful. At that time, the social climate in Japan looked down on men who served women. So one day, a drunken guest stared at us with his eyes and smiled contemptuously and said, "You are all big men, why do you sell women's cosmetics?" "But in order to continue to study in school, I encountered a lot of things like this kind of humiliation and not being understood.
But the sale of cosmetics did not last long, because cosmetics are neither rotten nor bad, so they can be used for a long time when they are bought once, and when they are sold after two or three weeks, the girls are still using them, so that the sale of cosmetics is difficult to continue. Although I can earn more than a dozen yen a month, I have very little left except rent and meals, so I don't have the money to pay tuition. So I wrote a letter to Mr. Guo Moruo and told him about my tight situation in Japan. Mr. Guo Moruo, who teaches at a university in Shanghai, learned about my situation and began to send me twenty yen a month, so that I could continue to study in art school for half a year.
In the autumn of 1929, Xu Xingzhi returned to China as the director of the Department of Western Painting of the China University of the Arts, he initiated the organization of the "Times Art Society", continuously published articles on left-wing art trends, and participated in the progressive performing arts activities of the "Art Drama Society", actively participated in the left-wing cultural movement, was one of the initiators of the "Left League", and was elected as the chairman of the "American Union", he has made achievements in art, film, drama, literature and other aspects.
Imprisonment and release upon return
In 1926, the National Revolutionary War against warlord rule began in China, in which the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated in an all-round way. The development of the domestic situation, we Chinese students in Japan have also heard about it. At the beginning of 1927, I was recalled to China by Mr. Guo Moruo, who was then the director of the General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army, and prepared to take up the art work of the General Political Department. However, I never dreamed that the domestic situation had undergone a sudden change. Chiang Kai-shek staged a "Four-One-Two" coup in Shanghai, and many revolutionaries were arrested, imprisoned, or killed. I was also arrested and imprisoned for three months in shanghai's Caohejing Army Model Prison. In prison, I wrote a letter to Mr. Okashiro, director of the Western Painting Department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, about my situation. Mr. Okashiro usually takes very good care of Chinese students, and he read my letter and immediately handed it to the school. Then, the school wrote a letter on bail in the name of the archaeologist Naohiko Masaki. Because of this letter, I was released by the authorities. After I was released from prison, I found that the situation of the people who used to be "created by the Society" was unknown, and there was another "July 15" coup in Wuhan, and Wang Jingwei also openly betrayed the revolution. I considered the situation and felt that it would be dangerous to stay in Japan, so in the autumn of that year, I returned to Tokyo with the financial support of my mother and friends to continue my study abroad life. At that time, I was able to get a scholarship of thirty-five yen a month for the "Gengzi Compensation", and after paying the tuition fee, I could pay living expenses, so I stopped working.
At that time, Tu Mo had already returned to China, and soon I became familiar with Zheng Yu, a Chinese student at the Faculty of Letters of Tokyo Imperial University, who was an official student, so he was superior to me in terms of economy and lived alone, and he asked me to live with him, so that my rent could also be saved.
From 1924 to 1929, Xu Xingzhi went to Study at the Tokyo Fine Arts School in Japan, and in 1927, he returned to China to participate in the propaganda work of the Northern Expedition, but was unfortunately arrested and imprisoned. This is a photo of Xu Xingzhi in Shanghai after he was released on bail. After returning to Japan, in addition to continuing his painting studies, he also initiated the organization of the "Young Artists Alliance" and participated in many progressive cultural activities.
Formation of the Young Artists Alliance
After I traveled east to Japan again, my original ideas of artistic supremacy and liberalism began to change. Listening to Zheng's advice, we gathered some Chinese students engaged in literary activities in Tokyo and established the Young Artists Alliance. In addition to me, the initiators included Shen Xiling, Situ Huimin, Yu Bingwen, and Qi Zongyi and his nephew Qi Zongsheng. At that time, hu Yuzhi's wife Shen Zijiu, Xia Yan's wife Cai Suxin, Zhou Yang (then known as Zhou Qiying), Feng Charter, etc. also participated in the activities of the Young Artists Alliance, adding up to more than 20 men and women.
After the establishment of the Young Artists Alliance, there have been more exchange activities with Japanese friends. We once asked the students of Kyoto University to invite some scholars to give us lectures, because they were also affected after listening to Mr. Kawakami's lecture on Marxism at Kyoto University.
After Mr. Akita Yuque returned from the Soviet Union, he published a "Soviet Travelogue", which I found very interesting after reading it, so I asked Mr. Akita Yuque to give us a speech together with Shen Xiling. Because we did not know Mr. Akita, we told Mr. Fujieda about it through Mr. Fujieda, a Chinese researcher who was deeply related to left-wing intellectuals at that time. When Shen Xiling and I visited Mr. Akita, he told us what he had seen in the Soviet Union and agreed to our request. After that, Mr. Akita gave a lecture at the NichirenKaikai, and we asked Mr. Fujieda's husband to do the translation.
In addition, we also listened to a lecture by the playwright Mr. Murayama, who gave an introduction to the Japanese theater industry. In the spring of 1929, Togata and Shigeru Maruyama and others split off from the "Tsukiji Small Theater" to form the "Shin Tsukiji Theater Troupe". Mr. Murayama joined them in "Roar, China!" about the struggles of Chinese port dock workers. For this reason, they asked me to be the costume and rehearsal consultant for the play, hoping that I could give advice on whether the actors' acting skills and their makeup were like Chinese. I went to rehearsals a few times, but the last time I went, I got into trouble.
One day, after watching the rehearsal at Xinzhuji, I didn't have a place to live, and such a thing was relatively rare for Chinese students at that time. Early the next morning, when I returned to my dormitory, there were two plainclothes men and a gendarme waiting for me there, and they asked me:
"Where have you been?"
"I went to the theater."
"What play?"
"Roar, China! 》。 ”
"It hasn't been staged yet, how can you watch it?"
"I was just watching them rehearse."
"Watching rehearsals, how can you watch a night?"
"If you think I'm lying, can you investigate?"
However, they became more and more angry and began to scold, ordering me to cut off contact with external left-wing writers.
Roar, China! After the performance, I went to a lecture hosted by the (Japan) Left-Wing Playwers' Union with Shen Xiling, Situ Huimin, and Yu Bingwen, who were interested in drama, and listened to their lectures on theater.
One day, at a lecture, I met a young Japanese woman named Shizuko Kawabata, who was very beautiful and gentle and warm from the perspective of Japanese women. She may be worried about whether Chinese students attending such a lecture will be able to understand the whole content, so during the break, the two of us often chat together.
One weekend, I went to her residence and learned that it was a factory nursery where several young women were taking care of the children. I first learned that Shizuko Kawabata was actually a nurseryman, but unfortunately she wasn't there that day, and I haven't seen her since. So I wrote a poem for her called "The Nursery for the Kids." Fifty years have passed now, and if Shizuko were still alive, she would have been a rare year.
In 1928, Xu Yukiyuki entered the famous Japanese painter
Takeji Fujishima studied in the studio
Mr. Takeji Fujishima
Tokyo Art School is a five-year school. In the first grade, the professor appears several times a week to instruct the students very strictly; in the second grade, the professor only comes once a week or two. By the third grade, I had entered the research room of the famous painter Mr. Takeji Fujishima. Mr. Fujishima's oil paintings are known for their boldness and magnificence. In his lab, we only see him once a month or two. So during the break, we would go to Mr. Fujishima's house to visit him. At that time, Mr. Fujishima's reputation was already very high, and he was also financially rich. The courtyard of Mr. Fujishima's house is large, and there is a very large flower bed, and the house is just behind the flower bed. He had a maid in his house, but she was very beautiful, so the husband used her as a model and painted a bust called "Fang Hui". On this painting, the woman holding an orchid and wearing a cheongsam was very famous at the time, and once exhibited at the exhibition, it had a strong impact on the painting world, and was soon called one of the masterpieces in the history of Japanese oil painting.
Takeji Fujishima paints in the studio
Before graduating, I had fewer opportunities to meet Mr. Fujishima, but I talked more every time I met. Mr. Fujishima never changed the students' paintings, he just looked at the paintings we painted, and while looking at them, he said that the advantages and disadvantages of which paintings had advantages and disadvantages, after which he would tell you the theory and laws of oil painting, and then teach you the techniques of oil painting.
Yukiyuki Maki Oil Painting: "Self-Portrait"
circa 1926 (Collection of Tokyo University of the Arts)
When I was at the Tokyo Art School, I went to see various art exhibitions in Japan, Europe and the United States. There are many fine art exhibitions in Ueno Park every year, especially the Spring Salon and Autumn Salon in France, which house works from various genres of classicism, romanticism and modernity, as well as excellent works from the collection of the Louvre Museum in France. In particular, Rodin's "The Thinker" and "The Bronze Age" and other works have left a very deep impression on me. These masterpieces have been of great help in improving my oil painting level.
Xu Xingzhi's 1925 sketches:
Plaster Portrait of Julie II (family collection)
Xu Xingzhi's 1926 sketches:
"Plaster Statue of the Goddess" (family collection)
Nara, Kyoto School Trip
In the fourth grade, the school organized a school trip. Originally, it was supposed to be in the fifth grade, but in order to let the students observe and study the art works in various places earlier, which would be beneficial to the graduation creation, the school deliberately arranged this study trip in the fourth grade. We went to Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, Uji and Koyasan.
Nara
Nara is a very beautiful ancient capital, the whole city is like a big garden, out of the station you can see a lot of deer. Most of the tourist souvenir shops in the city sell crafts such as wine glasses and chopsticks made of antlers. In Nara, we visited Todaiji Temple and Tang Zhaoti Temple, where many Tang Dynasty paintings, sculptures, and other works of art have been preserved. Great efforts have been made in the preservation of ancient cultural relics in Japan, and there are experts in the temples who manage these cultural relics.
When I lived in Nara, it was embarrassing to feel the "mixed bath".
The form of "mixed bathing" has long since disappeared in Tokyo's public baths, but it still exists in the local area. When I arrived in Nara, I was embarrassed to hear about it, and in order to avoid meeting female customers who were bathing, I deliberately took a bath late every night. One day, I also went into the bath very late, but when I was about to come out of the bath, there came a female customer who came to the bath, and I felt very ashamed, and my heart beat non-stop, but they laughed when they saw me nervous. Maybe I couldn't hide my nervousness, and they laughed even more when they saw me running out of the bathroom.
The study tour lasted for more than a month, and we enjoyed the scenery and rivers of Japan. After returning to China from Japan, I have also seen the famous mountains and rivers of my motherland and deeply felt that China and Japan are very different in terms of natural landscapes. China's natural landscape is very majestic, and Japan's scenery of mountains and trees are as small and delicate as potted plants, and their housing, trees and people's relationship is also different from China's, with their own unique style.
Kyoto
Testimony of history
After returning from Japan, my friend in Suzhou was getting married, and I wanted to give him a painting as a gift. But I didn't have a suitable painting in my hand, so I handed him the "Late Step" mentioned at the beginning of the article and said to him, "I hope that one day you can return it to me, but you can take it and hang it for a while." "I also stressed that this painting is a very memorable work for me.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, that friend fled to Shanghai for refuge because the Japanese army occupied Suzhou. In Shanghai, they heard about the fall of Suzhou, the destruction of the house and the damage to the wedding commemorative photos, but they were very fortunate that the painting was not damaged in any way, and they could not believe it.
Many of the Japanese soldiers who occupied Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing were From Tokyo, and perhaps when they saw the painting, they remembered their hometown, so they didn't destroy it. So I wrote a poem called "Nostalgia" and wanted to give it to the Japanese soldiers. I say in the poem:
In the future, at the end of the war, I will give you this painting as an "eyewitness" to the war of aggression, and if this is the case, the painting will have a special significance. If you keep it for me first, when China wins the final victory, you will take it as a symbol of repentance and return it to its original owner.
Xu Xingzhi's 1928 oil painting "Unemployed"
(also known as "The Wanderer", family collection)
Xu Xingzhi's oil paintings from about 1928:
"The Girl in Green" (original work has been published)
Xu Xingzhi's 1928 oil paintings:
"Youth" (original work has been published)
Xu Xingzhi's 1930 oil paintings:
Graduation work: "Workers' Home" aka "Friend's House"
(Collection of Tokyo University of the Arts)
By that time you have returned to your hometown, and you may take a walk by the quiet and beautiful waterway bridge, and you will abandon the idea of militarism and do your best to rebuild your country. At that time, we can hold hands like brothers, and you who have become pacifists may have forgotten your nostalgia.
Later, the painting came back into my hands. Now that decades have passed, I have become a white-haired old man. Some of the friends I knew from that era have passed away, but many are still alive and active.
Fortunate to survive, I have witnessed the drastic changes of these decades. Now the flames of war between China and Japan have been extinguished and friendly relations have been restored. Although my paintings are drenched in water and somewhat faded, they are a testimony to this period of history. Of course, I hope that this painting does not evoke infinite nostalgia, but only reminds people of the past and is full of hope for the future.
In 1930, Xu Xingzhi (scientific name: Xu Kui)
Tokyo Art School Graduation Certificate
In 1900 (the year of Gengzi), the Boxer Rebellion was launched in northern China, and Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, Austria and other countries jointly sent troops to occupy Beijing. The Qing government, under pressure from the great powers, was forced to sign the Treaty of Xinugu, paying 450 million taels of silver to the countries. (Later, some countries gave up part of the reparations, and the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China government used this part of the funds as a scholarship for Chinese students studying abroad - Editor's Note for the Chinese Translation)
In the spring of 1954, Xu Xingzhi resigned from all positions in the film industry and was transferred to the Central Academy of Fine Arts as the director of the Art Theory Research Office, where he was the pioneer of the teaching and research of foreign art history systems in Chinese higher art academies.