Saneatsu Mushanokoji wrote in one of his essays, I opened the window and saw Mt. Fuji. I had art brushes but I could not paint it. Fuji was too great. It was already completed as an art work.
I completely agree with him. In my case, however, I still want to paint it because it is an already completed art work
. I am not sure it is possible or not, but I want to try it, not only because Mt. Fuji is a good motif or a good artistic object, but because I have feeling like a religious faith to Mt. Fuji. The feeling is not similar to the faithbelief for people belonging to Fuji-ko (religious groups climbing Mt. Fuji)
, but a special aesthetic passion to Mt. Fuji. It can be said I fell in love with the beauty of Mt. Fuji.
Looking back to the past, my life has been always attracted to the direction of Mt. Fuji, as if it was just meant to paint it. I can vividly remember the strong impression I felt with surprise when I first looked over Mt. Fuji from train between Yui and Numazu Stations of the Tokaido Main Line. I can remember as if it was just on yesterday, even though it was more than thirty years ago, in the morning on Nov. 3, 1919 when I was on the train to Tokyo from my home town in Genkai-nada of the northern part of Kyushu to first visit my teacher, Okada Saburosuke, to study oil-painting. It was a very strong emotional experience for me. I was young, ambitious, excited and so filled with delight, so I could not stop crying with my hands push on the window. I made a decision I had never imagined until then, I will paint Mt. Fuji throughout my life, if I can fortunately become a painter.
After joining the private art school of Prof. Okada Saburosuke, I used to go to Gotemba City with a tool box for painting to make a sketch of Mt. Fuji, whenever I had time. Although I was awarded in NIKA Art Exhibition soon later, my life was still not so easy that I had to work in factory to continue art. Sometimes I had to draw Mt. Fuji away from Futago-Tamagawa near Tokyo, because I could not afford transfer fees.
My life changed by an unexpected chance. When I finished painting a portrait of a wealthy business person and then talked to him that I would use the reward to paint Mt. Fuji, the person said I have a second house in Gotemba. We use it only in summer, so you can use it in autumn and winter.
Because, at that time, I had a family with a wife and two children and daily life was economically so hard as electricity and gas had been stopped, his offer was felt as the grace of Budda for me. We immediately moved to Gotemba like a moonlight flit. But I actually left Tokyo with joy and hope, because I wanted to paint Mt. Fuji without any disturbance. This is why and how I began to live in Gotemba, where Mt. Fuji can be seen anytime I like to paint it. Since then twenty five years has passed. I once built a studio like a mountain hut and lived there for a while. Then we moved to near Gotemba Station for my children began to go to school. Recently we moved to the bottom of Otome Pass, the best location to see Mt. Fuji.
Hut-style studio
I began to live in the country house, but I could not paint Mt. Fuji at all for two or three months. I looked at Mt. Fuji everyday being deeply touched and saying to myself How wonderful Mt. Fuji is
, but I could not put a single stroke of brush on canvas. I could not even take a brush in my hand. The shape of Mt. Fuji seemed very simple, but it changed in delicate and complicated way from moment to moment, as if it was alive. I was impatient day by day. It was the hardest days in my life. I suddenly came across a thought that, to be a painter of Mt. Fuji, I should know more about clouds first. A full-fledged painter paints air. (Since I was an admirer of Impressionism, I had studied importance of painting light and air.) In case of landscape, air means sky and clouds. I have to catch clouds. Since I had only ordinary knowledge about clouds, such as cumulonimbus or stratus, I began to study shapes of clouds assuming that clouds around Mt. Fuji should have its unique features. When I was walking around, I happened to find a small western style house and approached it to see an anemometer and an anemoscope on the rooftop. It must be a local weather station. I expected that I could get a useful knowledge about weather around Mt. Fuji, then visited it. I met a young researcher who said This is Abe Cloud Laboratory, a private laboratory studying clouds and air stream,
and kindly agreed to ask the owner, who was absent that time but would come from Tokyo next week, my request of appointment. Several days passed by, and a messenger came to say my visit would be welcome. I visited the house again where are several thousands of photos of clouds. For they were academic photos, the sky was printed in black. Photos of roll clouds, cap clouds, and a sea of clouds specific to Mt. Fuji were taken in detail for all the four seasons. When I asked him if he would teach me clouds, he strongly encouraged me and told me many interesting stories. During the first meeting, we could make a friendly relationship. Whenever the gentleman came to the house, I visited him to receive private lessons about the shapes of clouds. A half of year later, I finally finished the first painting of Mt. Fuji with a size of around 40F, then I showed it to him. He mentioned When the wind blows from the west, the clouds go in this way. So this is correctly described.
In this way he scientifically certified my painting was based on observation of real nature. He was delighted, Mr. Ohmori, I am not sure in foreign countries, but I am sure that any other painter in Japan does not knows clouds more than you.
At that time, I did not know his social position, but later I heard with surprise that he was a elder brother of Count Masatada Sakai and he himself was also a Count, a Doctor of science, Masanao Abe. Owing to his introduction, I could have opportunities to meet noble persons who purchased my paintings. I was also supported by him in charge of oil colors and so on. I was not a fatalist, but I felt that my life had been determined in advance to be a painter of Mt. Fuji.
<>According to my family members, I am in a good mood on a day with good weather Mt. Fuji can be seen. I get up at three o'clock in the morning and wait for Mt. Fuji. I wait for the crack of dawn with hope and delight as if it is the first time to see Mt. Fuji. It is impossible for me to stay in bed. I feel music from Mt. Fuji at break of dawn. White color gradually and delicately changes to purple. On the moment the sunlight begins to reflect, the color of Mt. Fuji quickly changes to red, then creamy yellow. I feel that it is impossible to express in any words the drastic and delicate change in this short period of time. Whenever I am asked about beauty of Mt. Fuji
, I remind this feeling of powerlessness. I cannot find suitable expression.
富士山の見える日は機嫌がいい---と、家の者たちが言うのですが、毎朝、午前三時に起きて、私は富士山を待つのです。いつも始めて見るときのような期待と喜びとで夜明けを待つのです。寝てはいられないのです。暁の富士には音楽的なものすら感じます。ほんのり白い色が刻々と紫になって、いま、あそこに陽が当たると思った瞬間、さっと赤富士に変り、それがクリーム色に変ってゆく、この数十分の千変万化のありさまは、本当に筆や言葉では尽くせない感じです。三十年富士山を眺めている私に「富士山の美」を訊かれるとき、私はいつも、この筆舌に尽くし難い思いがするばかりです。ふさわしい言葉がないのです。では、自分の絵で説明することが出来ればいいのですが、画の方では傑作は一枚もない。とても富士山の美など描けるものではない。富士山を冒涜しているような、慙愧に絶えないというような気持ちで一杯です。
造型的に言って、あの円錐曲線の美だとか安定感の美だとか、そんなことを言っても始まらない。白妙の富士が美しいとか、夏富士がいいなどというのは贅沢。表富士がいいの裏富士がいいのという議論も、その土地の宣伝文句であって、富士はどこから見ても美しい。ただ描きたい富士と、描きたくない富士というのはあります。崇高な富士にくらべて非常に陰惨な般若の面のような富士がある。真冬のまっ白い富士が逆光線になったときで、なんとも言えない妖気がただようことがあります。それも瞬間のことで、雲の動きとともに柔和な姿に変わってゆく。絵筆を持って、じっと富士を見つめていると、思わずキャンバスの上に絵筆が走る。いつ見ても、どこから見ても美しい。そういう他しかないのです。それでいて、まだ一枚も富士の美を描けていないということは、なんという不幸、私は死ぬときに富士山に向かって「申訳ありません」と言って死ぬ男です。
こんなふうですから、他人の描いた富士山にも感心したことがない。富士山の美を本当に描いた絵など、まだ一枚も無いと思っています。北斎の富士山は有名だがスケールが小さい。富士山のヴォリュームが感じられないのが残念です。しかし北斎は才人で、つかまえどころが面白いと思っています。斬新なコンポジションで、富士がいつも生きているように思います。神奈川沖波裏の富士とか晴天凱風、いずれも面白い着想です。雪舟にも「三保の松原」「清見寺の富士」が有名ですが、気品とか風格というものが狙いであって、富士山そのものを描いているとは思えません。近代では渡辺崋山でしょう。遠州田原藩から江戸への途次スケッチをしたと思われる、非常に写実的なところが、マンネリズムの南画と違って、素直で惹きつけられるものがあります。大雅堂とか谷文晁の富士も有名だが、私は好きではありません。日本一の富士ということを、あまりにも意識して、富士を描かんための富士になっています。
現代作家では、梅原龍三郎さん、曽宮一念さんといった大家が描いていますが、ああいうデフォルメをするのは富士山を冒涜するような気がします。私もデフォルメしてみたいと思ったことがありますが、富士山と対決していると、デフォルメする気にならない。デフォルメして、富士の崇高さが描けるならばいいのですが、なにか自分流の富士山を描いているという感じで、あれならば、なにも富士を描かなくてもいいという気がします。
画家として、それぞれ尊敬している大家の絵に、こんな暴言を吐くというのも、生涯を富士に賭けた男の気魄と、神も笑覧あれ。
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