Oil Paintings

Murayama died at only 22 years old due to tuberculosis. During that short life-span, he produced a tremendous number of powerful painting. Murayama was also known for his poetry, and was particularly fascinated with Edgar Allen Poe. This fascination grew stronger as Kaita neared the end of his time on this earth. In Murayama’s writings, he was very open about his feelings. It is said that he had no fear in expressing the inner thoughts he had that aroused him sexually. The painting that you see before you, is said to be one of Murayama’s final oil paintings. The intensity of his gaze, looking straight ahead convey a tough figure with a powerful will. The color red and purple serves to further emphasized the serious feeling this painting is trying to portrays. The purple, red and yellow gives off a somewhat sad and gloomy feeling. This was painted a year before his death. The red hue in the painting also gives off the impression that Murayama knew that his final days were coming, and that death was waiting to greet him very soon. This also plays on to his fascination with Edgar Allen Poe, as Poe was very into the dark and grotesque. At the time, self-portraits were something that only the wealthy and influential people can afford. Rarely (if never) were there a self portrait of a woman during this time period (Meiji). This was mainly due to the fact that for most of Japan’s history, women were not given important roles in society. These important roles were given to the men, while the women were left to tend to the housework and care for the children. The wealthy and influential people often commissioned a self-portrait of themselves, so that when they died, people can remember who they are. Self portraits assigned a sense of importance and high status to the subject of the painting, since the person captured in the painting would be seen and remembered by many over the many years to come. This would give the viewer the idea that the person seen in the painting must of been of some importance if his country wanted to capture his/her image for the future too see. Murayama definitely wanted people to remembers him as a serious and important person. It shows that people care very much about what people think of them, that even after death a self-portait must be made to remember them by.

This Yōga oil painting by Seiki was greatly influenced by his time in France, in addition to the government sponsored of Westernize art during the Meiji Period. The contrast between the  maiko girl (or geisha in training) bright colorful kimono against the helper (on the right) serve to make a distinction between their role and class. The colors and dyes that are required to make the kimono that the maiko is wearing would cause the kimono to be very expensive. The fact that the maiko girl is able to afford this beautiful kimono while the helper can only afford a dull grey kimono gives off the impression that the maiko girl is already from a higher social class with more money than the helper girl. The maiko girl is about to finish her training to achieve higher status, while the helper most likely to remains at the bottom at society. In this painting, the occupation of geisha is no longer viewed as just sex and pleasure as in Edo period, due to government regulation/sponsorship. This also shows how the maiko girl can be seen as a higher classed member of society, since being a geisha is no longer labeled as being a sex worker, which gives maiko’s and geisha’s the ability to raise their social status in Japan. The maiko is composed. There is also a romanticization of the geisha profession in this painting. This is most likely done to appease to the western viewers, which sees and associates Japan as an exotic and sexual culture. By romanticizing the geisha profession, Japan is able to remove the negative notion around the geisha, making the Japanese look less barbaric.

This painting presents the glamorous world of nature by portraying a farm family working on the soil. The straw-thatched farmhouse roof lurk on the background, while the family is working on the luscious green pasture the family is working on.The ambivalence of the painting is very tranquil and calm. In reality, farm-work is a lot of hard work and labor. This painting represent the utopian view of working on a farm, when looking at the painting as a complete image. This glamorization of farm workers only serves to reaffirm the status and lack of appreciation for farmers. For this doesn’t shows the sweat and labor of their hard work. Serving to undervalues the work of farmers. However, at a closer look, the farmers body shows otherwise. They are bent down at a mid-squat. This position couldn’t be very comfortable and relax. The sun are settling down, creating a warm feeling, contributing to the beauty of this piece. The sun also shows the long hour of work these people do everyday and no matter the condition, they will continues to work because that’s their job. The obscurities of the face of these farmers point out that farmers work hard to cultivate food but are never acknowledged by those that eat them. People cares about the food they eat but not the people produces their food. Even with the hard work and effort farmers put in, no matter the sunshine or rain, they will remained at the bottom of society. The straw farmhouse shows exactly the situation farmers are in, that they remained poor and lived in harsh condition. They are stuck in this vicious cycle as farmers for if they want to quit, what other job can they do to sustain themselves. This is what they’ve been doing for years. So, they continues to farm.