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When [[Edo castle]] was rebuilt in [[1860]], Hôgai was commissioned to create a ceiling painting for the ''Ôhiroma'' (main audience hall). As the various national affairs of the [[Bakumatsu period]] ramped up, Hôgai then came to paint maps of the [[Kanmon Straits]], among other works, for the [[Tokugawa shogunate]].

When [[Edo castle]] was rebuilt in [[1860]], Hôgai was commissioned to create a ceiling painting for the ''Ôhiroma'' (main audience hall). As the various national affairs of the [[Bakumatsu period]] ramped up, Hôgai then came to paint maps of the [[Kanmon Straits]], among other works, for the [[Tokugawa shogunate]].

明治維新後失禄,明治10(1877)年上京後も精工社で輸出用陶器の下図を描いたりしたが,12年ごろ「犬追物図」制作のため島津家雇となる。15年にはアーネスト・フェノロサの知遇を得,17年フェノロサが組織した鑑画会に参加。翌18年第1回鑑画会大会で「伏竜羅漢図」が3等賞,19年同第2回「二王ノ図(仁王捉鬼図)」(個人蔵)が1等賞を受賞し,同会の中心作家としてフェノロサと二人三脚で日本画の近代化を進める。 代表作は,この晩年の数年間に集中しており,ここにいたって,狩野派,室町水墨画,維新後の明清画研究に,遠近法や西洋的色彩などの西洋絵画研究が加えられ,それらが集大成された。「不動明王図」「岩石図」「暁霧山水図」(いずれも東京芸大蔵)のほか,絶作「悲母観音図」(東京芸大蔵)は,日本画近代化の第一段階における記念碑的作品ともなっている。フェノロサ,ビゲローらとの関係から,アメリカのボストン美術館,フィラデルフィア美術館,フリア美術館にも作品が収蔵されている。また明治17年図画調査会雇,19年図画取調掛雇,21年東京美術学校(東京芸大)雇となり,美術学校の設立に尽力したが,同校開校の3カ月前に急逝した。

With the [[Meiji Restoration]], he lost his positions working for the shogunate, and for the domain, both of which ceased to exist in the new order. From [[1877]], he began to do preparatory drawings for export ceramics, and was employed by the [[Shimazu clan]] on at least one occasion, in [[1879]].

 

Hôgai attracted the attention of American art enthusiast [[Ernest Fenollosa]] in [[1882]], and in [[1884]] joined Fenollosa's [[Kangakai]] (Painting Appreciation Society). In the Kangakai's first painting competition the following year, Hôgai's painting of "diving dragon and [[arhat]]s" (''fukuryû rakan zu'') won third prize, and in the 2nd annual competition in [[1886]], his [[Nio|Niô]] painting (today in a private collection) won first prize. Quickly becoming one of the most central artists in the Society (if not the most central), Hôgai, with Fenollosa's guidance and input, led the way in the modernization of Japanese painting, and the creation and development of the new form known as "Nihonga" (lit. Japanese painting). Many in the art world in Japan at that time, looking at Western examples, felt strongly that Japan needed to develop a national style of art; while many saw the adoption of Western modes, styles, and materials (i.e. esp. [[yoga|realism in oils on canvas]]) as the way to bring Japanese art into the modern era, Fenollosa and Hôgai pushed for the incorporation of "modern" elements - e.g. Western perspective, elements of realism, shading of colors, and use of light and shadow - into traditional modes of painting, in traditional media (e.g. ink and mineral pigments on paper or silk).

 

Combining elements of the Kanô tradition, [[Muromachi period]] [[ink painting]], and painting of the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing Dynasty|Qing Dynasties]] with these various Western elements, Hôgai and Fenollosa, along with Hashimoto Gahô, [[Yokoyama Taikan]], and a handful of other artists, pioneered the ''Nihonga'' movement, keeping Japanese traditional painting alive by adapting it for the new era. Some of Hôgai's key works from this period, the last years of his life, include paintings of [[Fudo Myoo|Fudô Myôô]], one of rocks<!--岩石図-->, and one of a landscape with dawn mist<!--暁霧山水図-->, all today owned by the [[Tokyo University of the Arts]]. Perhaps his most famous work is a hanging scroll painting of the [[bodhisattva]] [[Kannon]] as Compassionate Mother (''[[Hibo Kannon]]''), which was exhibited at the [[Paris Salon]] in [[1883]]; Fenollosa purchased the painting that year, later selling it to [[Charles Lang Freer]] in [[1902]]. While this original remains today in the collection of the [[Freer Gallery of Art]] at the Smithsonian Institution, Hôgai later painted a second version, with some slight alterations, which is today in the collection of the Tokyo University of the Arts, and which has been designated an [[Important Cultural Property]]. The work, representative of early Meiji period Nihonga, is in ink, mineral colors, and gold on silk, and depicts a traditional subject, Kannon, albeit in a somewhat untraditional mode, this role or identity as "compassionate mother," possibly borrowing hints from the Western tradition of paintings of the Virgin Mary; the painting also incorporates a degree of realism in the depiction of the faces and bodies of both Kannon and an infant standing on a cloud below, along with shading and some treatment of light and shadow.

 

 

==References==

==References==

*"[http://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8B%A9%E9%87%8E%E8%8A%B3%E5%B4%96 Kanô Hôgai]," ''Asahi Nihon rekishi jinbutsu jiten'' 朝日日本歴史人物事典, Asahi Shimbunsha.

*"[http://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8B%A9%E9%87%8E%E8%8A%B3%E5%B4%96 Kanô Hôgai]," ''Asahi Nihon rekishi jinbutsu jiten'' 朝日日本歴史人物事典, Asahi Shimbunsha.