Anastasia now displaying works of SHIMOURA, Kouzui / Painter from Japan

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SHIMOURA, Kouzui / Painter

Profile

1940 Born in OSAKA

1960-70 Lives and works in Mt. Hodaka and Mt. Tsurugi, The North Japan Alps

1970-to date goes to the Himalayas every year and the Andes for works

Currently lives and works in Takarazuka City, Hygo Prefecture, Japan

Exhibitions, Awards and Collections

1967 Gallery Azuchi

1968 Kokudo Gallery

1970 Nakamiya Gallery

1971 Kokudo Gallery

1972 Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka

1973-82 Hankyu Department Store, Osaka

1982 Navio Hankyu Musuem, Osaka, sponsored by The Yomiuri

1983 Awarded the Austrian Embassy Prize, ‘The Vienna International Art Exhibition’

1984 Grand Gallery

1985 Grand Gallery

1989 Tokyo Central Gallery

1990 Tokyo Central Gallery

1991 Kintetsu Department Store, Tokyo

1991 Ginza Art Musuem

1993 Oval Hall, The Mainichi

1994 The commemorative exhibition for the opening of the Kansai International Airport, organized by 21^st Century Osaka Society

2000 won the grand prize from the selected 30,000 works throughout the world, ‘The energy of artists beyond national boundaries’, organised by A.S.A.I., ITALY

2001 ‘Twilight Scene, Menlungtse’, collected by Prince Dipendra of Nepal

2004 Hyogo Prefecture Museum, sponsored by Nepal

Kouzui Shimoura,

Expresses mountains, understanding their essence

Mt. Fuji has been an important theme for painters in Japan since the Edo period, and the Huangshan Mountain was an essential motif to painters at the turn of dynasty from Ming to Ching in China. It is well known that Cezanne in his later years used to paint Mont Sante-Victoire day after day. Both in the East and the West, many painters since old times have painted mountains, from the small ones neighbouring on villages to the big like the Japan Alps and the Himalayas.

Rising to the sky, mountains are sublime and beautiful. But they sometimes refuse and lead us astray. As religious, sporting, adventurous and purely aesthetic objects, mountains have been adored and held us in awe. Needless to say, they have attracted many painters. Kouzui Shimoura is one of them, and has been fascinated with mountains.

In 1956, it was on the news that the Japan Mountaineering Party had succeeded in reaching the summit of Mt. Manaslu in the Himalayas. Mt. Manaslu is 8,156 meters in height and the eighth highest mountain in the world. The news deeply moved many people, and also touched Shimoura’s heart. At that time he was a junior high school boy in Osaka, and the following year he recklessly challenged to climb Hodaka mountains. Although he climbed with his elder brother, it was nothing but adventure. Shimoura looks back over it and says, “I climbed with jeans and canvas shoes on, without crampons. As I didn’t know about mountains, I didn’t care about my outfit. It was thoughtless climbing. When I think of it now, that climbing must have been as dangerous as losing my life. All I had was an enthusiasm for climbing, which moved me into such an action without thinking about the fear of nature. Therefore, I had just a broad impression that the mountain was big and beautiful, and couldn’t feel the atmosphere deeply as I lost my composure in this adventure.”

This is his memory of fifteen years old. Since then, mountains have fascinated him, and become a main motif for his painting. From twenty to twenty-eight years old, he had lived and worked in mountains, mainly Mt. Hodaka mountains and Mt. Tsurugi. He had shut himself into them for eight months a year. This was a start of building up his experience in mountains. He says, “I used to stand my easel at the hut and paint mountains day after day. Sometimes I would go down to villages to buy foods and necessities for painting and again go up. Mountains were changing day after day, in the morning and the evening, under the clear sky and the dark sky. Once or twice a year, I have come across incredible scenes, which were as marvellous as I had a feeling of awe. This experience became my big fortune, and has made up my humble stance to mountains. The more experience I have got in climbing them, the more discoveries I have.”

Paintings express not only realistic but also fictitious world. Therefore it could be reasonable to deform a visible world, but it becomes unworthy if the deformation is the lack of the subject’s essence. It is very difficult to understand the essence of mountains.

The world of colours and forms heightened mystically

It is true that only mountaineers could understand the essence of mountains? Shimoura says, “Only the people who have climbed mountains could grasp the essence.” He also says that it is difficult to express their beauties which he wants to paint on the canvas, though he has a lot of experiences in mountains. He recalls a day and says, “When I was living and working in Mt. Tsurugi, I used to go to see the Toyama plains every evening. The moment the sun sets, we have a high possibility to encounter graceful scenes of mountains. It was happened on a windy day, just before the typhoon came. Golden coloured clouds were running on the dark sky, red ones were leaving tracings above the horizon, and the brown rocky mountain was enhanced by light. In the middle purple broken clouds appeared and green ones were floating up straight above the sea of clouds. This beautiful scenery was beyond all description.”

Nature has profound beauties, and in some cases it creates incredible colours. Meanwhile, painting has profound expressions. Painting has to express such an incredible nature with paints. The colour seen in the mountain might be beyond our daily images. Shimoura does not simply paint such a scene with ordinary colours. His strong colour scheme he builds up is the fruit of earnest communication with mountains for many years.

When painters paint mountains, they usually feel interest in shapes of mountains. Then they become keen to express their mystique. About this point, Shimoura says, “When I was twenty years old, I took charge of a small hut in Yatsugatake mountains and I was staying at just a six mat room. At night, however, I was seized with fear and got to no sleep until the dawn. The third day, I felt to be impatient to go back to town. I recognized my weakness derived from the urban life. But strangely enough, this miserable feeling challenged me to go out on the fourth night. Just as I calmed down, at the break of dawn, the South Japan Alps, Mt. Kaikoma, and Mt. Fuji came into my sight, and then the sun rose. Unconsciously I said to thank the scenery.”