Ichiro Fukuzawa (January 18, 1898 – October 16, 1992) was a Japanese modernist painter credited with the establishment of Surrealism in Japan's artistic communities during the early 1930s.Asanu, Toru. “Fukuzawa, Ichiro.” Grove Art Online, 2003. https://www-oxfordartonline-com.avoserv2.library.fordham.edu/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000030159?rskey=u3nFTc&result=1.Durozoi, Gerard. “Notes on Principal Surrealists.” Essay. In History of the Surrealist Movement, 1st ed., 670–70. University of Chicago Press, 2004.
While Surrealist artists are known for their distinct focus on the human subconsciousness and dreams, Fukuzawa's Western-style (yōga) paintings depart from such conventions by instead providing sharply satirical commentaries on human behavior and systemic social issues in Japan, including the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the adverse impacts of the 1973 Oil Crisis on the Japanese economy.Ulowetz, Christina. Rep. More Real than Reality: How the Human Body Functions in Japanese Surreal Art, 2015. Scholarly paper for "Japanese Modernism Across Media" course. https://ds-omeka.haverford.edu/japanesemodernism/files/original/2ccb3881aec14850c834de2b77af8f5c.pdf Since he was associated with Surrealism's progressive ideas, Fukuzawa's art became a contentious issue for the Japanese State that led to his subsequent imprisonment and forced him to pursue pro-Imperial subjects during the Second World War.
Fukuzawa's career was not limited to the Japanese islands as he traveled extensively across mainland Asia, Europe, the United States, and Australia where his exposure to key socio-political events and artistic styles influenced his later periods of creativity.
Despite his violation of the Peace Preservation Law during World War II, Fukuzawa is celebrated as one of only a few individuals in Japanese history to have been imprisoned for breaking national laws and to be regarded as a Person of Cultural Merit and the recipient of the Order of Culture within his lifetime.
Early life Fukuzawa was born in Tomioka-machi, Kitakanra-gun, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, to a wealthy family that owned multiple businesses within the silk and banking industries.Otani, Shogo. “A Misanthropic Humanist - On the Present-Day Significance of Fukuzawa Ichiro.” Essay. In Laugh Off This Hopeless World: Fukuzawa Ichiro, 174. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 2019. In 1918, he entered Tokyo Imperial University to study literature, but departed prior to completion of his degree in order to learn sculpting at the studio of Fumio Asakura.
Early career (1924–1931) The affluence of Fukuzawa's family permitted him to study European art in France between 1924 and 1931. Paris was the nexus from which Fukuzawa found inspiration in European Surrealism, mainly through Max Ernst's collage series La Femme 100 Tetes (1929) and the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico. Fukuzawa's fascination with this highly influential European modern art movement compelled him to alter his preferred medium from sculpture to painting; Ernst's cut-outs of printed material and their reassemblage into entirely new works of art inspired Fukuzawa to apply the same technique to painting. Fukuzawa's intense attraction to Surrealism is directly attributed to his perceived connections between the movement and the traditional Japanese literary genres of haiku and koan. As haiku seeks to convey in short form descriptions of larger images, Fukuzawa likewise intended to express and extend through the confines of a finite painted canvas the magnitude of Surrealist thought.
Return to Japan (1931–1939) Fukuzawa's earliest Surrealist works were featured at The First Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai (Independent Artists Association) in 1931, an exhibition that primarily highlighted younger, Fauvist-inspired Japanese artists. Fukuzawa exhibited 37 paintings under a "Special Submission" category to which he received a positive reception from both audiences and critics. Subsequent to this success, Fukuzawa then became a regular participant in future installments of the Dokuristu Bijutsu.
Throughout the decade, Fukuzawa's art morphed into the humorous and satirical style that forms the corpus of his work. Professors - Thinking About Other Things at Meetings (1931) is an archetypal example of his Surrealistic wit. A group of faceless professors is seated around a table engaged in academic discourse. Behind each man is a portrait that displays their innermost thoughts unrelated to the discussion (e.g. the foreground of one gentleman's portrait prominently features a woman's exposed breast).
In tandem with painting, Fukuzawa also penned numerous books and essays in Surrealism, a component of Kindai bijutsu shicho koza (1937), a seminal six-volume book series authored by Japan's leading artists on the latest developments in Japanese modernism. His writings on Surrealism's intellectual and artistic theories were disseminated to the socially-conscious, progressive views of avant-garde artists.
In 1939, Fukuzawa left the Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai and founded Bijutsu Bunka Kyōkai (Art Culture Society), an alternative arts organization exclusively devoted to Surrealism.Otani, Shogo. “A Misanthropic Humanist - On the Present-Day Significance of Fukuzawa Ichiro.” Essay. In Laugh Off This Hopeless World: Fukuzawa Ichiro, 175. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 2019.
Northeast China (Japanese-occupied Manchuria) and opposition to the government (1932–1945) As Japan became increasingly militarized, the government censored art deemed antithetical to the State's imperialist policies. In an attempt to avoid punishment, Fukuzawa altered the Surrealist characteristics of his works in a less overt manner that presented the illusion of a more favorable view of the Japanese State.
In 1932, Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China, then colonially called Manchuria. Thereafter, Japanese artists regularly traveled to the area to produce State-sponsored images to further the nation's imperial ambitions. In reality, the ulterior motives for these artistic sojourns were often two-fold: (1) to demonstrate distance from avant-garde/politically left-wing movements, and (2) to advance their artistic status.Culver, Annika A. “Chapter 3: Surrealism in Service of the State: Fukuzawa Ichiro and Associates, 1935 - 36.” Essay. In Glorify the Empire: Japanese Avant-Garde Propaganda in Manchuoko, 51. University of British Columbia Press, 2013. Fukuzawa retained his anti-Imperial political beliefs and maintained support for Surrealism through paintings whose content was either thematically ambiguous or neutral in tone. He found inspiration in the vastness of the area's landscape, and he incorporated subtle criticisms pertaining to Japan's control of Manchukuo within romanticized scenes visually acceptable by the government for public arts consumption.
Oxen (1936) is one of the large-scale oil paintings Fukuzawa utilized to address the contradictions between Japan's idealization of "Manchuria" versus the social realities of poor Chinese and Korean peasants who resided under colonial rule. Two oxen are shown grazing in a field while two groups of people are clustered in the background. The seeming innocuousness of the scene is challenged by the presence of holes on the oxen that reveals the flimsiness of their skin. Scholars speculate the artificiality of the oxen was meant to evoke the weakness surrounding Japanese propagandistic idealization of "Manchuria" as a colony in which all races lived harmoniously. Social inequality is expressed in the contrast between the two groups of people. The first group of gray, emaciated figures is shown partaking in excruciating, backbreaking labor while the second group of pink-skinned nude individuals relax near the edge of a river. Fukuzawa's social critique highlights the inequities between Chinese laborers and the Russian bourgeoisie. The painting was not perceived as social criticism because the dominance of the landscape seemingly appeared to align with Japanese propaganda that marketed the region as an exotic, utopian paradise settlement.
By the late-1930s and early-1940s, Fukuzawa's disguised loyalty to the State became increasingly difficult to uphold as the government restricted artistic activities and censored the term “avant-garde”. The government targeted Surrealism for its promotion of introspection and emotions ran counter to imperialist messages that emphasized national collectiveness, anti-Western and Pan-Asian beliefs, and rejection of art for art's sake.Sandler, Mark H. “The Living Artist: Matsumoto Shunsuke's Reply to the State.” Art Journal, Art, Design & Architecture Collection, 55, no. 3 (1996): 75 - 76.
On April 5, 1941, Fukuzawa and art critic Shuzo Takiguchi were arrested and imprisoned by the Special Higher Police because the government viewed Surrealism as Communist propaganda.Nibuya, Takashi. “Nihon No Surrealism Kaiga.” Mizue, no. 940 (1986): 32–45. The case has since been described as one of the best-known incidents in the wartime repression of Japanese Surrealism. The incident occurred after authorities deemed Fukuzawa's art had violated the Peace Preservation Law (1925), a national policy designed to suppress political demonstrations or creative expression that espoused anti-imperial and pro-Western beliefs.
Following his release and throughout the remainder of the military conflict, Fukuzawa abandoned the Surrealist style and shifted his attention to floral still life and seascape war paintings. Of these, his 1945 painting Shipborne Special Unit Leaves the Base was one of few that specifically referenced Japan's military involvement. A lone Japanese soldier is portrayed on a patrol boat in the middle of a fierce storm. Similar to Oxen, this piece demonstrates Fukuzawa's ambivalence in the subject's relationship to the State's agenda. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo's text on the work states the image was copied from a film still, and art historians interpret Fukuzawa's ambiguity to be an ironic pictorial statement on the futility of the war.
Return to Surrealism (1945–1950) Fukuzawa resumed his pre-1945 stylistic approach, but his paintings evolved into a thematically somber amalgamation of Surrealistic and Expressionist attributes. Dante Alighieri's 14th Century narrative poem The Divine Comedy contributed to this change as Fukuzawa incorporated violently disfigured bodies caught amid chaos, bloodshed, and misery. Moreover, the concept of Hell became a recurring theme throughout the remainder of his career.
Group of Figures Defeated in Battle (1948) is regarded as Fukuzawa's first major individualized painting post-1945. A pile of muscular, nude figures are piled onto one another in a barren desert landscape. The entanglement of the bodies’ limbs obscure their faces, and the composition's solemn and melancholic mood conveys Fukuzawa's acknowledgement of the devastating effects of war on human life.
Global explorations (1950–1970) On a quest for renewed artistic inspiration, Fukuzawa traveled extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Mexico, Latin America, Australia, and mainland Asia.
Fukuzawa's return to Europe in 1952 coincided with a major Pablo Picasso exhibition. Picasso's signature Cubist style coupled with Fukuzawa's studies of indigenous African and Latin American sculptures at the Musée de l'Homme led him to incorporate more abstracted figuration into his paintings, most recognizable in his "Latin American" series.