2nd Floor Exhibition Room
Q: Was Asakura influenced by French sculptor Rodin?
Asakura and Rodin are frequently taken up as themes of studies in the field of the modern sculpture history. The following are the reason: Asakura is said to create sculptures that are based on very classical, Italian academic statues. When Asakura debuted, Morie Ogiwara and Kotaro Takamura returned to Japan after serious studying Rodin's works in Europe. Then, they introduced a kind of "Rodinism" into Japan.
In those days, Morie and Kotaro introduced Rodin who was a contemporary artist in France at that time into Japan, but Asakura was criticized that he still stuck to the academism in a negative way and made superficial forms that were not substantial like Rodin's. It was a very simple distinction. However, after examining a variety of documents, it turned out that Asakura surely studied about Rodin. It is also revealed by the fact that he had a piece of Rodin's work at hand. Moreover, for example, the modeling of his masterpiece "Hakamori" could not be possible if he did not study about Rodin. By the same token, the female statue's legs in his graduation work "Shinka" are cut short, which is a torso-like representation. In other words, it does not matter whether a statue does not have arms, legs or other parts. The important thing is its overall representation. He had actually already practiced this type of representation in his graduation work. This concept could not be conceived suddenly, so we can see that Asakura practiced such expression after studying about Rodin. This is also apparent in other works. It is difficult to think that he did not study about Rodin. I think he had studied harder than other sculptors.
Q: There are books of abstract sculpture by Max Bill in the bookshelf. Was Asakura interested in abstract sculpture?
Asakura did not study in Europe. He continued to study in Japan. However, new information about art in Europe had continuously come into Japan around 1910s. It is true that Kotaro and Morie studied about Rondin in Europe. But I think artists, including Asakura, who had acute senses, skills and power of observation, could absorb the contemporary art at that time, and applied it to their works even though they did not study in Europe.
Q: There are many sculptures of cats.
Exhibited here is a collection of cat sculptures. However, this room was originally used as a greenhouse for growing oriental orchids. They are just blooming. When Asakura was alive, there were about 400 pots of orchids. He really liked oriental orchids. He was so enthusiastic about growing oriental orchids that he wrote a book on how to grow them. This room is now used for exhibiting cat sculptures. He occasionally made cat sculptures in his lifetime.(continued in the right column)
There is a cat sculpture titled "Tsurusareta Neko," or cat pinched by the neck, which was created in his earliest career. He also planned to hold a large-scale exhibition titled "cats in various poses," in which one hundred cat sculptures would be exhibited, in the year of his death. It was the year of the Tokyo Olympic Games, so he wanted to hold the exhibition coinciding with the Olympic Games. However, he died in the early part of the year. Therefore, the exhibition was not realized. Only about 50 cat sculptures are now preserved.
Asakura's sculptures are largely categorized into two types, commissioned portrait sculptures which account for the majority of his works and sculptures which were displayed in exhibitions. Most of the commissioned works are life-sized male and female statues. I think that the sculptures he really wanted to create are those ones, and those was displayed in exhibitions. That cat sculptures are just included in this type. On the other hand, portrait sculptures were created under some conditions because they should resemble clients' faces. I think he seriously created those exhibited sculptures because, especially during his early career, they should win prizes, and be regarded as his best works of the year. However, these cat sculptures were not created in that way. In this room, there are some photographs of cats. He actually loved cats and kept more than 10 cats. He used to say that how beautiful a cat's movements are and that he likes its carefree behavior including its faithlessness. I think the cat sculptures were created in a relaxed manner, reflecting his feelings, so their expressions are unrestricted.
Asakura had rigorously taught his students about foundations. He himself created sculptures based on the foundations, and represented things as they really were. It seems that the cat sculptures were created after making molds from living cats, but it is not true. When he created those sculptures, he applied various sculptural elements to them. One of the examples of those elements is, in simple terms, the deformation of muscle movements and behavior. This cat also contains a series of movements in which it jumps up, catches a mouse and then jumps down. It seems that Asakura was engrossed in the look of the cat. I can sense that he really enjoyed creating this one while concentrating on it. In this sense, those cat sculptures are very intriguing and sophisticated among his works.
I heard the following from his daughter, Kyoko Asakura, who is also a sculptor; Asakura used to stroke a cat on his lap - she thought that her father must have confirmed the cat's bone structure and muscles by his hands. He had keen senses, so he could memorize the shape of the cat by just touching it. As I mentioned before, when he created a cat sculpture after touching the cat, he added some sculptural elements to it, transforming the shape into his own expression. (continued in the next page)
