Sunset at the Ferry

This work , whose subject is the ferry crossing at Yaguchi on the Tama River, is Wada Eisaku’s graduation work, submitted on July 7, 1897. It is considered his representative work.

Wada Eisaku, who had studied painting under artists such as Kuroda Seiki and Kume Keiichiro and participated in the founding of the Hakubakai (White Horse Society) in 1896, was invited to become associate professor of the course of Western painting at the Tokyo Fine Arts School when it was established the same year. After taking up the post, however, he resigned to enroll in the same division as a special student, eventually becoming the first graduating student of the course of Western painting. We can see the example of Kuroda Seiki’s Talk on ancient romance behind Wada’s representation of this group of figures in Sunset at the ferry. However, if Kuroda’s work is a kosoga, i.e., a painitng based on some idea or history, Wada’s, which it influenced, limits itself to the depiction of contemporary customs and manners, demonstrating why kosoga never took root in Japan. Placing the horizon high in the picture, Wada has arranged the figures of the people watching the opposite bank, seen from behind, along a diagonal. As Kojima Kaoru has pointed out, the boy carrying a basket on his back harks back to the village girl with a similar basket in Talk on ancient romance. The boy’s role here is to alone look back toward us and by pointing straight ahead with his left hand to serve as mediator between the viewer and the space of the picture. Sunset at the ferry was exhibited in the second Hakubakai exhibition of 1897. It was also exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900 while Wada was residing in Europe and was awarded a certificate of merit. (Writer : Masako Kawaguchi Source : Selected Masterpieces from The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music: Grand Opening Exhibition, The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, 1999)