Heart of the Mountain

Hakuyo’s real name was Shigeyoshi. Following in the footsteps of his elder brother, Teijiro, who died young, Hakuyo studied under Chu Asai. He graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1901 and became a member of Taiheiyogakai the following year. In 1907, he took part in the art magazine Hosun. After breaking away the yoga (Western-style painting) section from the Saiko Inten (Reorganized Japan Art Institute Exhibition), in 1922, he founded Shunyokai. That year, he moved to Ueda in Nagano. He painted rural views in scrupulously realistic expressions based on sketching.

In support of Nihon Nomin Bijutsu Kenkyujo(The Japan Peasant Art Institute) founded by his close friend, Kanae Yamamoto, in 1922, Hakukyo Kurata moved to Ueda as deputy manager and educational chief of the institute. He remained there until he died in 1938 and continued to pursue a strict art scrutinizing nature in a “vivid and true-to-life attitude,” which was his aim. Here, everything basks in the scorching sun. The most conspicuous tree in the foreground is modeled by means of heavy shading from the stout trunk to each one of the branches and powerfully shows off its existence amidst the nature. The stack of logs and the haystack also soar imposingly as substantial solids. Kurata said, “I try not to shake off a single thing.” In other words, he did not neglect anything that was there and endeavored to capture each and everything as an existence possessing a vital force. This “vivid and true to life attitude” is given full play to in this painting, too.