There are many different types of flowers that herald the coming of the season, but at this time of year, when the sun is beginning to warm up, Sakura, cherry blossom, is the flower that most people look forward to seeing in bloom. The pretty, peach-coloured blossoms symbolise the end of winter and the budding of the earth, and have long been an enduring theme in Japanese art.

“The Eight Themes of Mount Hakuba (Snowy Gorge and Flower Field)” depicts the arrival of spring in the high mountains. Spring here actually indicates summer, and of course there are no blooming cherry blossoms to be seen. The alpine plants are native to the Hakuba (also known as Shirouma)  mountain range. In the height of summer when the snow had melted, the artist saw this flower field above the clouds. The spring had clearly yet silently visited the high rugged mountains.

The work was painted by TERASAKI Kogyo (1866-1919), a Japanese painter born in Akita  Prefecture at the end of the Edo period. He was trained in the traditional painting styles such as the Kano School, the Shijo School and Nanga, and gradually emerged as a leading figure in the world of Japanese painting in his later years. One of his peers who studied with him was YOKOYAMA Taikan (1868-1958), but while YOKOYAMA Taikan lived a long life, TERASAKI Kogyo died suddenly at the age of 52, and is not as well known.

The setting for this painting is the famous Mount Hakuba. Straddling Nagano and Toyama Prefectures, Mount Hakuba is known as one of the three mountains of Shirouma, together with Mount Shakushi and Mount Yari. It was once known as a popular mountain “Nishi-yama (West Mountain)” in Shinshu region, while in Hokuriku region it was an uncharted mountain behind the Tate-yama mountain range. The Kaga clan called it “Oku-yama mawari (Deeper Mountain Route)” and strengthened their border security accordingly. Since modern mountaineering began in earnest around 1900, it has been a treasure trove of alpine plants. TERASAKI Kogyo set up his villa in the Kanbayashi Onsen area in 1912, and stayed there every summer thereafter to work on his paintings.

The series “The Eight Themes of Mount Hakuba” (1917) is based on sketches of three days and two nights spent climbing the mountain, and depicts eight different views of Mount Hakuba at different times and places. The main motif of one part of the series, “Sekkeikaen”, is the 3.5km-long great snowy gorge and flowers growing in the place called Nebukappira near the summit. The towering rocky peak must be Mount Shakushi in the southern part of the snowy valley. The clouds are gradually rolling in and beginning to obscure the full extent of the peak, but they emphasise the imposing figure of the peak at the same time. The depiction of the snow-covered surface, exposed to the wind and rain, and the single solid line on the snow surface, makes us feel the steepness of the route to this point. The flowers in the foreground are modest in comparison to the scale of the landscape, but there is an abundance of orange, white and indigo-coloured flowers. Perhaps the slightly taller one is a wheel lily.

The flower fields of Hakuba, stretching from Nebukappira in the upper reaches of the great snowy gorge, lured the botanists of the Meiji period to this area (*). TERASAKI Kogyo was one of the mountaineers who came into contact with the mysteries of nature, and he painted a visionary picture of spring in Hakuba, including the rapidly changing atmosphere on the mountain.

KONNO Saki

Curator

Tohoku Fukushi University Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum

Translation :Naoko Mabon (WAGON)

In his essay “Shirouma gojunen” (“Fifty Years of Shirouma”, in “The Complete Modern Mountaineering Collection, Volume 4” Tokyo Sogensha Co., Ltd., 1961), SHIMURA Urei (1874-1961), a pioneer of mountain photography, wrote about his first ascent of the mountain in the summer of 1904. There, he notes that he had discovered a rare species thought to be extinct, and two new species at Nebukappira. It seems that he became obsessed with collecting plants in Hakuba and climbed the mountain every year until 1916. Just as “The Eight Themes of Mount Hakuba” was produced in 1917, it seems that TERASAKI Kogyo was one of those who was exposed to the pristine beauty of the area. In his essay, SHIMURA says that the area was losing its primitive appearance by around 1922 due to the rapid increase in the number of climbers. Incidentally, last year (2020) the great snowy gorge route was closed due to a lack of snow and extreme heat during summer, and there are concerns about the effects of global warming.

KONNO Saki
Curator
Tohoku Fukushi University Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum

Translation :Naoko Mabon (WAGON)

[Reference]

“TERASAKI KŌGYŌ” Akita Municipal Senshū Museum, 2016
“Mountain Aura: The Discovery of the Japanese Alps” Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum / Matsumoto City Museum of Art, 2016
NISSHO Hanahata “Mount Shirouma”, Yama-kei Publishers co.,Ltd., 2000
“Mt. Shirouma dake” edited by KUSHIDA Magokazu and others, Hakuhinsha, 1997

[Image caption]

TERASAKI Kogyo “Hakuba-yama hachidai (Sekkeikaen)” (“The Eight Themes of Mount Hakuba (Snowy Gorge and Flower Field)”)
1917, colour on paper, mounted as a scroll
Collection of the Akita Museum of Modern Art
Image courtesy of the Akita Museum of Modern Art