Breaking Waves at Dai? Misaki

In this painting, the waves lap at the sharp cliff beside them. The vitality of the waves, which send their spray so high into the air, provides a sharp contrast to the placid sea in the distance. The movement of the waves attests to the grimness of the sea’s topography. The Imperial Household Agency commissioned a painting from Fujishima to hang in the study of the Shōwa emperor. After deciding to paint a picture of the rising sun, Fujishima set out in 1928 to find an appropriate landscape. His trips to find the right spot continued for ten years. In 1930, he set out for Mie Prefecture where he had been hired as an art teacher. There, he discovered the landscape in this painting. Two years later, he submitted this picture to the thirteenth Tei-ten Exhibition hosted by the Imperial Art Institute. The scene in this painting is not just a mere translation of visual scenery onto the canvas. In this painting, one can see Fujishima’s efforts to “observe nature closely and take it in” in order to attain “the effect of true realism.” He states that he struggled with “withdrawing from questions of what was eastern and what was western” and attempted to “paint in a way that was independent of western sensibilities.” The paint on the canvas is rough from his forceful brushwork, and this roughness reveals the extraordinary energy that went into this piece. This painting has been described as Fujishima’s masterpiece. There is no mistake in stating that this painting reflects one stage of the maturation of modern Japanese culture during the twentieth century.