Japanese artists reflect traditional works and styles

Six contemporary artists with a shared interest in the history and technical mastery of Japan’s pre-20th century art and craft traditions reveal how this heritage is transformational in “Imayo: Japan’s New Traditionists,” on exhibit through Jan. 8 at the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Contemporary works are shown alongside corresponding earlier Japanese art from the institution’s permanent collection. The items, curated by John Szostak from the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, include textiles, ceramics, carved wood and more.

The participating artists are Toru Ishii, Ryoko Kimura, Haruo Mitsuta, Satoshi Someya, Koji Tanada and Taro Yamamoto.

Contemporary work

Kimura’s “Three Drunken Men” plays off “Three Drunken Women,” an 18th-century painting by Torii Kiyonaga. Kimura, who has wide-ranging knowledge of Japan’s pictorial heritage, references the older artwork but creates a new setting for the tableau: a contemporary izakaya, or dining establishment, in Japan. Instead of three women, she portrays three businessmen enjoying their “kanpai!” or “bottoms-up!” in a drunken stupor.

The three attitudes — the laughing drunk, the crying drunk and angry drunk — are all on display. One happily hoists a frothing mug of beer in the air while another, with smartphone in hand, looks as if he is tearfully falling asleep at the table. The businessman at left, with rumpled suit and an angry grimace, has transformed his necktie into a headband while clearly feeling the effects from a bottle of sake.

Kimura, who also does Chinese-style landscapes, Zen Buddhist ink portraiture and ukiyo-e paintings, and woodblock prints, cleverly works one of the women from the original painting into the design of a beer poster tacked to the wall. Her works often substitute historical images of beautiful female entertainers and courtesans with young male figures popular in teen magazines in manga-style humor.

“Three Drunken Men” is a hanging scroll composed with sumi ink and mineral pigments on silk.

The original

The late-18th century scroll “Three Drunken Women” by artist Torii Kiyonaga is from the Japanese Edo period (1615-1868). The three women are much more subdued in their inebriated state than their male counterparts in Kimura’s scroll. Kiyonaga (1752-1815) was considered a leader in the age of ukiyo-e prints who often depicted famous beauties and long, languid female figures. Composed of ink and color on paper, the scroll was a gift to the museum from the late Robert Allerton.