The Second Coming of Ophelia
Yasuko Tomita, Curator Yokosuka Museum of Art
Kazuo Hanaoka's glass engravings have something in common with the Nouveau.
The most frequently utilized motifs in those decorative styles were
flowers and plants, which, with their elegant images of “nature,” lent
color to modern European cities around 1900. Another prominent motif
that was equally essential was the form of a female figure that gave off a
sense of unique eroticism.
Many of the female figures were nude, with eyes that were vacant and
distant, yielding themselves to the undulating linear forms morphed into
long hair or flowing water. Although these figures were based on
realistic depictions, a strong sense of fantasy was repeatedly manifested
in a common tone in all the depictions created during that period (that
is, that fantasy was expressed not only in nude figures, but in any motif
that was utilized, including plants and insects).
The same feeling of fantasy can also be perceived from the “nature”
images Hanaoka depicts, such as his slightly bowing flowers in bloom,
or his nude female figures. Particularly in the latter, the image that is
unearthly in its own right manifests an even more seductive world via
its superimposition of the material of glass with the sense of substance
possessed by water. Needless to say, this image of a “water nymph” is a
typical “” motif that can be linked to the image of Ophelia
that was portrayed by John Everett Millais.
It must be noted, however, that in comparison to the “”
images created in Europe during that period, the images that Hanaoka
has brought into existence are far more pristine, while also possessing
only a faint scent of decadence. These characteristics were derived from
the artistijs sense of form. At the same time, they undoubtedly reflect
the formative characteristics possessed by glass engraving,
characteristics that derive from the medium's techniques requiring
highly refined skills and a cautious attitude. But the reason why his
works have attracted my interest is precisely because this artist has
continually pursued erotic and fantastic images that utilize motifs of
“nature.”
On reflection, erotic expressions are surprisingly difficult to find in the
modern Japanese history of craftwork. Decorative styles from around
1900, as represented by Art Nouveau, had quite an influence on the
development of Japanese craftwork, but seen from the viewpoint of
eroticism, there seems to be a big difference between the two. This
essay is not a place to discuss whether that discrepancy simply came
from differences in preference, or whether there was some sort of
mechanism within the modern Japanese history of craftwork that
functioned to transfer eroticism to a different level. However, a variety
of problems must be concealed within modern Japanese craftworks to
explain the situation in which the spirit of Eros is absent today.
The above reflection can lead us to realize that Hanaoka's glass
engravings, which manifest enigmatic images of “nature” where realism
and fantasy coexist inside transparent glass, are the artist's stealthy acts
of resistance toward the absence of Eros in the modern Japanese history
of craftwork.
(Translated by Taeko Nanpei)