Fujita Haruhiko: Notomi Kaijiro: An Industrial Art Pioneer and The First Design Educator of Modern Japan
Fujita Haruhiko: Notomi Kaijiro: An Industrial Art Pioneer and The First Design Educator of Modern Japan
Fujita Haruhiko: Notomi Kaijiro: An Industrial Art Pioneer and The First Design Educator of Modern Japan
Figure 4
The Kanazawa Kogyo Gakko (renamed
Ishikawa Ken Kogyo Gecko in April 1889,
Ishikawa Kenritsu Kogyo Gakko in May 1901),
Kanazawa, in the late 1880s. (Courtesy of the
Ishikawa Kenritsu Kogyo Koto Gakko and
K. Hamagishi, Kanazawa).
Table 1
Comparative tables of curricula of Notomi’s
technical schools.
c. 1888 1894
Kanazawa (later Ishikawa Ken) Toyama Ken Kogei Gakko, Study Subjects
Kogyo Gakko, Study Subjects (except speciality) (except speciality)
Department
Drawing Art Crafts Common Crafts
Wooden Sculpture
Botanical, Animal,
Landscape, Figure
Paintings Division
Marine Products,
Pottery Painting,
Dyeing, Sewing,
Metal Sculpture
Wax Modelling,
Pottery Making,
Copper casting
Divisions
Divisions
Lacquer
Subject Subject
Reading
Writing Writing
Arithmetic Mathematics
Physics Physics
Chemistry Chemistry
Drawing Drawing
Archaeology
Application to Products
Painting Reproduction
Calligraphy
Perspectives
Experiments
Mechanics
Analyses
1898 1900
Kagawa Ken Kogei Gakko, Study Subjects Kagawa Ken Kogei Gakko, Study Subjects
(except speciality) (except speciality)
Department Department
Woodwork Metalwork Woodwork Metalwork Lacquer
Mechanical Metalwork
Mechanical Woodwork
Mechanical Woodwork
Mechanical metalwork
Mechanical Lacquer
Wooden Sculpture
Wooden Sculpture
Metal Sculpture
Metal Sculpture
Gold Lacquer
Lacquering
Divisions
Reading
Writing Writing
Mathematics Mathematics
Physics Physics
Chemistry Chemistry
Design Design
Moral Lessons
Crafts. To judge from its curriculum (figure 9), the Drawing Depart-
ment was a kind of design department. The Art Crafts Department
concentrated on crafts. The Common Crafts Department was a
department of industry and technology, rather than that of crafts.
However, what they called Common Crafts was neither mechanical
engineering nor chemical engineering. The Common Crafts Depart-
ment consisted of divisions of dyeing, copper casting, marine prod-
ucts, sewing, lacquering, and pottery making. Therefore, compared
with the Art Crafts Department, which consisted of divisions of wax
sculpture, drawing for dyeing, pottery painting, wood-stone-ivory
sculpture, and embroidery, the Common Crafts department dealt
with crafts for the common man. “Futsu” of “Futsu-kogei-bu,” the
Japanese name of the Common Crafts Department, means “com-
mon,” “ordinary,” “average,” or “everyday.” For example, both
Figure 6
The Toyama Ken Kogei Gakko (renamed
Toyama Kenritsu Kogei Gakko in October
1901), Takaoka, in the 1890s. (Courtesy of the
Toyama Kenritsu Takaoka Kogei Koto Gakko
and K. Joho, Takaoka).
Figure 8
The Kagawa Ken Kogei Gakko (renamed
Kagawa Kenritsu Kogei Gakko in May 1901),
Takamatsu, in the 1900s. (Courtesy of the
Kagawa Kenritsu Takamatsu Kogei Koto
Gakko).
Figure 9
Drawing for a metal flower-vase, a graduation
design, by Kobayashi Sadashichi, 1901.
(Courtesy of the Kagawa Kenritsu Takamatsu
Kogei Koto Gakko and I. Yamamoto,
Takamatsu).
however, who laid the foundation for it, as has been shown, by not
separating design courses from other craft courses, but by uniting
them into one in his school curriculum.
Wright’s close observation continues:
In this wonderful little school, an all around training
includes painting, lacquer, and carving. Their results are
astonishing. In none of these things is the process of manu-
facture allowed to be lost in the finished result. It is made
an artistic and interesting circumstance in the result; as in a
small wooden saucer where the strokes of the carving tool
in cutting away the wood had been given a rhythm, which
Figure 10
so serves as a finished decoration that the mere record of
Ornamental wooden tray or “Marugaku-
trimming off superfluous wood at the back of the saucer is
Hakusai-no-zu.” (Courtesy of the Kagawa
an artistic feature, the only one attempted in the result.30
X. A Change of Direction:
30 Ibid., 15–16. Art and Design Education Around 1900
31 The Kagawa Shinpo, February 20, 1898, Wright, who partisanly observed the fight against the “fatal enemy,”
in Kagawa Kenrirsu Kogei Koto Gakko, however, was not optimistic about the arts and crafts of Japan at all:
Takamatsu Kogei Hyakunen-shi: Ishizue
“Whoever has noted the change that has come over the Japanese
(Takamatsu: Kagawa Kenritsu Kogei Koto
Gakko, 1998), 48.
arts and crafts in the past four years, notably the difference between
32 F.L. Wright, 16. their exhibit at the Columbian and the St. Louis expositions, has
33 Ibid., 1905/6, 8. witnessed the beginning of the end.” 33 The difference between
Figure 11
The Saga Kenritsu Saga Kogyo Gakko Arita
Bunko (former Saga Ken Kogyo Gakko Arita
Bunko before June 1901, renamed Saga
Kenritsu Arita Kogyo Gakko in April 1903),
May 1902. (Courtesy of E. Hirokawa, Arita).