Alison Bradley Projects is delighted to announce that Yuki Katsura's (b. 1913-1991, Tokyo) Towering Rage (怒髪天をつく, 1953) has been acquired by the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
In Towering Rage (1953) Katsura used thick strokes of oil paint to depict the wide-eyed glare of a menacing yellow figure, which could be read upon first glance as an oni, a villainous ogre that is a well-known icon of Japanese folklore. However, upon further consideration of the painting, it becomes clear that Katsura has skillfully rendered an optical illusion—what appears at first to be a single face emerges as a three-headed figure with shared eyes and protruding jaws and teeth on either side. The original Japanese title of the work, dohatsu ten o tsuku (怒髪天をつく) is an idiom that conveys a fury so intense that one’s hair stands upright and reaches the heavens. Significantly, the word dohatsu-ten by itself also evokes an irate image of Batō Kannon in Buddhist iconography (Hayagriva in Sanskrit), one of the six transformations of the Bodhisattva Kannon, who usually takes on a three-headed, wrathful form. In this case, dohatsu-ten can refer to the angry-haired heavenly being. In Japanese folklore, Batō Kannon is known as the guardian of the animal realm, a furious sentient with sharp fangs, a lion’s mane, and equine features such as a horse’s mouth—all of which can be observed in Towering Rage. Katsura’s decision to include distinctive horns atop the figure’s head is unusual as it complicates whether the figure is in fact Batō Kannon or an oni, perhaps combining visual archetypes as a way to recast both allegoric figure’s presumed roles within folklore and Buddhism. Similarly, the painting does not include any direct reference to a horse or include a “third eye,” as are typical in representations of Batō Kannon. The artist moved away from realist convention in this work, instead employing caricature to interpret the mythical being. His wild, piercing eyes are off-kilter and framed by sharp bundles of golden hair that seem to explode outward, echoing the title of the work as they are barely contained within the pictorial frame. Katsura emphasized the materiality of her chosen medium through the use of contrasting colors, dark outline, and the flattening of the figure’s intimidating features. She complicated the depth of the pictorial frame with selective application of light and shadow, using a collage-like technique to build up the paint with dynamic blocks of color that bring the looming head to life, even as it almost appears to float upon a demure blue background. While the piece is figurative, the artist’s clear understanding of the principles of abstraction come through in her unique construction of the figure; she deliberately positioned the fangs to articulate three sets of jaws, splaying outward to mimic the horns above in a visual echo that corresponds to his bristling hair.
While oni are typically cast as the wicked enemies of mankind, the more merciful Batō Kannon is known for removing sicknesses, curses, and obstacles. With its crazed expression peering back at audiences with all three faces, the striking subject of Katsura’s painting seems to scrutinize humanity itself. The artist’s deft depiction of the Kannon’s fearsome expression indicates the artist’s political thoughts and activities at the time; it was one of many of Katsura’s works that strongly critiqued society in the early 1950s, such as Resistance (1952), March (1952), History of Mankind (1953), Women’s Day (1953), Human and Fish (1954), and We’re all Suffering (1954). During this time, Katsura was an active member and juror of the progressive group Nika-kai, an influential position that may not have been possible for a woman in the prewar. She moved in the same circles as other politically-engaged cultural figures of Japan; for example, the artist became close friends with cultural critic Kiyoteru Hanada and participated in Hanada and acclaimed artist Tarō Okamoto’s Night Society (Yoru no Kai) along with Kōbō Abe, Yutaka Haniya and others. Several members of the group had strong Marxist inclinations and emphasized the importance of art’s engagement with politics; they were highly critical of the guise of liberal democracy and the dangers of nuclear power. At this time, Japan was still reeling from the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and were wary of the American’s continued engagement with nuclear testing at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands between 1946-1958, a territory formerly occupied by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Katsura was personally invited to participate in the Night Society by Okamoto—both artists shared a deep interest in the incorporation of folklore and the combination of different artistic styles in their work. With its strong palette—especially the use of stark black and white and the contrast of warm and cool tones—Towering Rage in particular appears to be resonant of Okamoto’s work of the same era. Katsura produced one other painting piece also entitled Towering Rage in the same year, another work reminiscent of Okamoto’s murals in its stylistic approach and palette.
Katsura painted Towering Rage in the same year as History of Mankind and Women’s Day, two works that critiqued the limitations of freedom and the empty promises of democratic society. It also precedes her most political works, Human and Fish and We’re all Suffering, both painted in 1954 following the Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon) nuclear incident that resulted in the irradiation of 23 Japanese fishermen caused by the U.S. military’s critically miscalculated “Castle Bravo” test at Bikini Atoll. Katsura painted Towering Rage in 1953, one year before the incident, and if the menacing yellow figure she painted did refer to Batō Kannon, it is eerily prophetic. Batō Kannon has also been popularized as a guardian of local fishermen, his large, horse-like mouth is said to have the ability to swallow the power of the ocean without difficulty and save those lost at sea. Katsura has used Buddhist and folkloric motifs in many of her works, including the detailed rendering of what could be an oni or Batō Kannon in her prewar oil painting Work (1936), as well as the figuration of the oni in her postwar paintings Oni and Flower (1954) and Oni in a Yukata (1955), the latter of which was awarded a prize by the Nika-kai.
“If you’re a modern person, you must always carry the spirit of criticism…and there’s an attitude that you shouldn’t only paint what you can sense around you.”
Katsura, “What is a Motif?” Atelier No. 330, August 1954
