Sayume Tachibana (1892-1970), ‘Jealousy’, 1923Source“To Western eyes, it m
Sayume Tachibana (1892-1970), ‘Jealousy’, 1923Source“To Western eyes, it may seem that Sayume has something of a typical gothic sensibility. His subject matter includes ghosts, water sprites, shape-shifting fox ladies, “hell courtesans,” and tragic stories of lost love, murder, and suicide. However, his career, which spanned the Taisho and early Showa Periods, came well before more conventional gothic influences reached Japan; so his art represents a truly authentic Japanese sense of the macabre and mysterious.Sayume is a semi-tragic figure. His introspective and otherworldly art emerged at a time when Japan was moving towards militarism and modernism. Although this means his art now has a poignant atmosphere of ghostly nostalgia, at the time it meant he could not enjoy all the success his talent merited. Also, a great many of his works were destroyed in the great fire that followed the Tokyo Earthquake of 1923, while others were destroyed in the War.” (Source) -- source link
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