This content was created by Magdalena Kolodziej. The last update was by Kandra Polatis.
Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian HistoryMain MenuGet to Know the SiteGuided TourShow Me HowA click-by-click guide to using this siteModulesRead the seventeen spatial stories that make up Bodies and Structures 2.0Tag MapExplore conceptsComplete Grid VisualizationDiscover connectionsGeotagged MapFind materials by geographic locationLensesCreate your own visualizationsWhat We LearnedLearn how multivocal spatial history changed how we approach our researchAboutFind information about contributors and advisory board members, citing this site, image permissions and licensing, and site documentationTroubleshootingA guide to known issuesAcknowledgmentsThank youDavid Ambaras1337d6b66b25164b57abc529e56445d238145277Kate McDonald306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5fThis project was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Photograph of students at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, c. 1924-1927.
1media/Chen Chengbo photograph_thumb.jpg2020-09-02T22:17:53-04:00Magdalena Kolodziejedc0cba8697e2d8ae1adc4d7399e2c567c2e5e46353Photograph of students of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, c. 1924-1927. Chen Chengbo (1895-1947), the sixth student from Taiwan attending the school, is sitting down on the ground, the first from the left. Image provided by the Chen Cheng-po Culture Foundation.plain2020-09-05T18:24:50-04:00MK-0007Copyright (C) reservedKandra Polatis4decfc04157f6073c75cc53dcab9d25e87c02133
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1media/guo xuehu 1928 scenery near yuanshan.jpg2019-11-18T17:20:13-05:00Art Schools27Tokyo School of Fine Arts; Tokyo bijutsu gakkōplain2021-03-11T09:38:13-05:00Magdalena Kolodziej
Tokyo School of Fine Arts (Tōkyō bijutsu gakkō) constituted the pinnacle of professional training in Japan. It administered entry exams and required its applicants to have graduated from high schools. Many of its graduates went on to work as art teachers at middle and high-schools throughout Japan and in colonial Korea and Taiwan. See: Kaneko Kazuo, "Kyūshokuminchi no zuga kyōin," Issun, no. 62 (2015).
Tokyo School of Fine Arts and other specialized art schools, such as the Imperial Art School, Culture Academy, Tama Imperial Art School, and the Women's Art School, as well as art schools in Kyoto and Osaka accepted students from Korea and Taiwan as well as Japanese who were born or grew up in the colonies. Because no public art schools were established in Taiwan before 1945, some aspiring artists moved to Japan or Europe to enroll in such an institution.
Tokyo School of Fine Arts accepted in total 30 male Taiwanese students and 89 male Koreans in the pre-1945 period (Yoshida Chizuko, Kindai Higashi Ajia bijutsu ryūgakusei no kenkyū: Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō ryūgakusei shiryō (Tokyo: Yumani shobō, 2009), 10.). The majority of male students from the colonies came to Japan to pursue oil painting. The numbers of those interested in studying nihonga increased only gradually. In general, aspiring artists from Taiwan enrolled at these institutions came from wealthy backgrounds. See also: Kate McDonald's discussion of mobile students from the colonies and their experiences in Tokyo; see also: Wong Aida Yuen, "Art of Non-Resistance: Elitism, Fascist Aesthetics, and Taiwanese Painter Lin Chih-Chu," in Art and War in Japan and Its Empire, 1931-1960, eds. Ikeda Asato, Aya Louisa McDonald and Ming Tiampo (Leiden: Brill, 2013.).