Aokigahara Field

Title	Aokigahara Field
Artist	田渕俊夫　TABUCHI Toshio
Date	1969
Medium	color on paper
Dimensions	162.0×228.0
Classification	Japanese-style Paintings
Accession Number	JJ198500006000
Summary	This work was done during a period when Tabuchi was painting African subjects such as “The Gods of Yoruba” (1968) and “The Assimilated” (1970), treating nature—plant life, human beings, and gods—as interconnected themes. It was probably his first painting of an identifiable Japanese landscape. Aokigahara is a lava field at the base of Mt. Fuji that is covered with a thick forest of trees. The composition of complex curves clearly differs from the many paintings he produced beginning around 1977, which make extensive use of horizontal parallel lines to create a wide, static space. These curved lines and the repetitive reversal of dark and light used in representing the trees give an uncanny sense of life to this chaotic view of nature. The fine drawing of the tree limbs and the wide expanses of beautiful greens and whites are noteworthy because they became important elements in his later style. Here they express a purity of nature that is beyond the reach of human beings. This picture can be thought of as an important source of Tabuchi’s present style.

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Native place	Tokyo, JPN
Birth	1941
Biography	Tabuchi was born in Tokyo. He entered Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1961 and completed graduate study at the same university in 1967. Upon completing his graduate studies, he was selected for the Spring Inten exhibition for the first time. He then traveled in Nigeria and Italy until February 1968, experiencing firsthand the vitality of plant life and becoming deeply impressed by the technique of fresco painting. After returning to Japan, he presented paintings on African themes. He was recommended for associate membership in the Inten in 1970 and studied with Hirayama Ikuo. During the same year, he became an assistant at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, where he later served as an instructor and associate professor until 1985. In 1986, he became an associate professor at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and in 1995, he became a professor. He actively presented landscape paintings, with the Inten as his main venue. He developed a solid reputation for his lucid line drawing, based on his assimilation of direct sketching, and for the transparent beauty of his colors, including silver-white and green. In 1978, he won the Excellence Prize at the Tokyo Central Art Museum Japanese-style Painting Grand Prize Exhibition; in 1979, the Excellence Prize at the Yamatane Art Museum Prize; and in 1982 and 1985, the Taikan Prizes at the Inten.

Aokigahara Field

TABUCHI Toshio