Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection

Online Exhibition Guide

How do we leave our mark?

How is art a reflection of our personhood?

A mirror into our soul?

This exhibition traces the pathways that Japanese women artists forged for themselves in their pursuit of art.

Follow them into some of the realms within which they found their artistic voices—such as courts and castles, Buddhist convents, and literati circles (intellectual cliques).

The artists shuttled through these realms, rendering their borders porous—no small feat at a time marked by rigid societal stratification, stringent gender roles, and class expectations.

We refer here to their gender identity as women. But it is possible that if asked today, some of them may have identified differently.

We cannot speak for them, but we hope to amplify their voices and celebrate how they left their indelible mark on the world through art.

Ōtagaki Rengetsu 太田垣蓮月
1791–1875
Sake Decanter (tokkuri)
1800s
Glazed ceramic
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2021.196

Ōtagaki Rengetsu did not use a pottery wheel since it was considered unsuitable for women. Instead of emulating wheel-thrown pottery, she embraced the idiosyncrasies of hand-building.

Every aspect of this work reveals her personal mark. The pockmarked surface records her fingers’ movement. She inscribed it with her own poetry, written in Hiragana (also known as women’s script). Notice her fingerprints on the tokkuri’s surface.

Joys of Calligraphy

Taking up the brush
just for the joy of it,
writing on and on, leaving behind
long lines of dancing letters.

Ōtagaki Rengetsu

なにごとを
なすとはなしに
たはむれに
かきながしたる
水莖のあと

太田垣蓮月

Introduction

Turning to the sister arts of painting, poetry, and calligraphy (together called The Three Perfections) for artistic expression was an act of self-assertion. One’s brushwork (whether in calligraphy or painting) reflected one’s true nature.

You will find the designation joshi in the signature of several artists on view. It is made of two kanji characters:

女(pronounced “jo”)woman

史(pronounced “shi”)author

Today this gendered honorific is outdated. Recently, it has even been used as a derogatory term. But artists who referred to themselves as joshi used it to identify themselves as women of culture—as women and as artists.

Murase Myōdō 村瀬明道
1924–2013
Breaking Waves in the Pines (shōtō)
Late 1900s
Ink on paper
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.155

Left to right, the characters read “pines” and “waves.”

Notice the forceful calligraphy. Imagine the artist’s motion, energy, and swerve. Thick ink splinters and breaks—like waves or rugged pine bark—into white streaks. Murase Myōdō created this powerful work using her left, nondominant, hand. At 39, an accident rendered her right side paralyzed. Resolute to continue pursuing her passions, she taught herself to use her left hand.

Kō (Ōshima) Raikin 高(大島)来禽
Active late 1700s
Autumn Landscape
Late 1700s
Ink and light color on paper
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.193

From an early age Kō (Ōshima) Raikin studied Chinese painting, poetry, and calligraphy and later took an active role in literati circles, intellectuals who shared a passion for Chinese art. Autumn Landscape, with its abbreviated strokes, schematized rendering of foliage, and color washes, reveals her familiarity with Chinese painting manuals, especially The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, popular in Japan at the time.

Ink painting of old woman kneeling on a pale blue mat wearing long, dark robes. She holds a sheet of paper in one hand and a paint brush in the other.

Tomioka Tessai, detail of a posthumous portrait of Ōtagaki Rengetsu 太田垣蓮月. Source: Tokuda Kōen, Otakagaki Rengetsu 大田垣蓮月 (Tōkyō: Kodansha, 1982).

ŌTAGAKI RENGETSU 太田垣蓮月 (1791–1875)

Ōtagaki Rengetsu was a fixture in the artworld of her day. She was a revered colleague and mentor of both male and female artists. So admired for her poetry, calligraphy, painting, and ceramics, forgeries appeared already in her lifetime.

Despite her popularity, much of her life remains a mystery. Purportedly the illegitimate daughter of a samurai and a courtesan, her given name at birth was Nobu. She was then adopted by the Ōtagaki family. Starting at age seven, Rengetsu served as a lady-in-waiting at the castle of a daimyo (feudal lord), where she trained in various arts.

Following the loss of her husband and children to illness, she became a Buddhist nun. It was then that she chose the name Rengetsu (Lotus Moon).

Ōtagaki Rengetsu 太田垣蓮月
1791–1875
Waka Poem
About 1828 or 1840
Ink on decorated paper
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.181.3

This poetry slip (tanzaku) is a rare work, likely composed in Rengetsu’s 40s judging from the signature on the back, shown here. Her poem celebrates the New Year. It alludes to the practice of gathering pine saplings during the New Year festivities, symbolizing longevity.

On this first Day of the [Year of the] Rat,
even the mist covering
this field of pine saplings
gives a hazy sense of
a long life to come.

A photograph of a signature on the back of the work.

Calligraphy by Ōtagaki Rengetsu 太田垣蓮月
1791–1875
Painting by Tomioka Tessai 富岡鉄斎
1836–1924
Three Waka Poems and a Pine
Second half of the 1800s
Ink on paper
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2021.156

Ōtagaki Rengetsu’s skillful calligraphy graces her student Tomioka Tessai’s painting of a rugged pine. This collaborative work is a token of the close relationship between the renowned nun-artist Rengetsu and her male protégé and life-long friend, who later became a famed painter-calligrapher in his own right.

Kuroda Kōryō 黒田光良
1823–1895
Two Teabowls in the Style of Rengetsu (Rengetsu-yaki)
Late 1800s
Glazed ceramic
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.259.1-2

The interior of both of these teabowls is inscribed with poems by the nun-artist Ōtagaki Rengetsu. While the signatures also read “Rengetsu,” they were not made by her. And yet, they are not forgeries. (Though, owing to her fame, she was often faked.)

They were made as a tribute by her collaborator and admirer, Kuroda Kōryō. After her death, he even took the name “Rengetsu II” and continued her legacy. His seal appears on both bowls.

The Three Obediences—I’ve had none all my life.

Ema Saikō

三従総欠一生涯

江馬細香

Unidentified artist
Signed Mirei 美嶺
The Three Obediences (Sanjū)
1700s–mid-1800s
Ink and color on paper
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.146

In this folk painting, an aged woman clutching Buddhist rosary beads crouches on a mat.

Overhead hang the characters: The Three Obediences (Sanjū 三従), a Confucian code of propriety stating that a virtuous woman is beholden to her father, husband, and, finally, son. This social tenet originated in China and grew popular throughout East Asia, including Japan. It captures the challenges imposed by strict gender roles and expectations.

Miwa Teishin 三輪貞信
1809–1902
Waka Poem on Poetry Slip (tanzaku)
Late 1800s
Ink on decorated paper
Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.182

Like others in the exhibition, Miwa Teishin shuttled through various social realms in her life. Born the daughter of an artist, she became a famed geigi dancer. Then, leaving the profession to marry, she opened a school. Following her husband’s death, Teishin took the tonsure, becoming a nun.

This animated calligraphy is of a waka poem she composed:

Forever
you have been
smiling as if
the happiness bestowed upon you is known in heaven.

Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection is organized by the Denver Art Museum and made possible through the generous gift of the John Fong and Colin Johnstone collection. Support is provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Blakemore Foundation, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.