Avalokitesvara as a Merciful Mother

The last work by Kano Hogai, who after meeting Ernest Fenollosa, charged himself with realizing the latter’s goal of reforming traditional Japanese painting in the Meiji era. This work represents the fruit of Hogai’s spirit of experimentation and the starting point for modern Japanese style painting.

A Kannon (Avalokitesvara) floats in the midst of a space warped in a curve. If we follow the deity’s gaze, we see that drops of water fall in an arc from the bottle the Kannon holds in the right hand and pours down upon the haloed baby joining its hands in prayer. The infant’s drapery hangs down toward the rugged mountains, which Hogai is said to have based on Mount Myogi. A bottomless abyss lies beyond.
Although Kano Hogai was considered one of the four great painters of the Kobikicho Kano School in the late Edo period, his encounter with Ernest Fenollosa, who wanted to reform traditional painting in Japan, fated him to strive to realize this goal. The works that date from after his mid-fifties, which are considered to reflect this transformation in his way of thinking, show the beginnings of an awareness of an integrated expression of light and dark and demonstrate Hogai’s unique, dynamic compositions. At the same time, however, they can be theatrical and exaggerated. In the present work, such weakness have more or less been eliminated, and tranquility pervades. Hogai’s pupil Oka Fugai has pointed out in Shinobu gusa (Nichiei-sha, 1910) that Hogai died immediately before the completion of this work and that because he was experimenting with his pigments, discoloration has occured and the gold appears to be brilliant. Nevertheless, this work still represents the ultimate destination of Hogai’s unwavering endeavor and the starting point for modern Japanese style painting. (Writer : Reiichi Noguchi 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)