XII, Ōura Nobuyuki; Yosuke Akiba, Publishers 21st Century, Inc.; Okabe Print Studio; Print House OM

Artwork Overview

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Ōura Nobuyuki, artist
born 1949
Yosuke Akiba, Publishers 21st Century, Inc., publisher
Okabe Print Studio, printer
Print House OM, printer
XII, 1982–1983, Showa period (1926–1989)
Portfolio/Series title: Enkin o kakaete (Holding Perspectives)
Where object was made: Japan
Material/technique: lithograph; screen print
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 30 3/8 x 22 1/2 in
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 77.2 x 57.2 cm
Credit line: Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Fund
Accession number: 2002.0032.12
Not on display
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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Japan Re-imagined/Post-war Art," Mar-2008, Kris Ercums
This portfolio of 13 prints came under vehement attack in the early 1990s for so-called “unflattering” portrayals of the Emperor Showa (Hirohito) (1901-1989) juxtaposed with
tattooed female nudes and images of atomic mushroom clouds. The portfolio was included in a group exhibition of local artists at the Toyama Prefectural Museum in 1993. After protests from ultra-conservative supporters of
the imperial family, the museum removed the work from its collection and burned 470 catalogues which featured the portfolio. Ōura fought back with a lawsuit, however
discrimination of him and his supporters continued in Japan. In an interview from the mid-1990s, Ōura describes his motivations for creating these fragmented images.

After living outside of Japan for several years, I wanted to create a portrait of myself as a Japanese. You cannot just paint your face and call it a self-portrait; you have to seek the self
in your soul. To do so, I placed [the emperor’s] portrait in my prints. I tried to create a sense of the emptiness of the self by using his image—his existence is by nature a form of emptiness in that he is a symbol that nobody really knows the meaning of. Looking back, I realize I could do this because I was living in New York, away from Japan. The distance allowed me to see him in perspective. I had no intention of criticizing the emperor. I never imagined that the prints would lead to such controversy, not in my wildest dreams.
~ Interview in Newsweek ( Japan), June 10, 1996

Exhibitions

Japan Re-imagined/Post-war Art
Kris Ercums, curator
2008

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 271 (revised Episode 190) May-2009, revised Sep-2012, Ai-lian Liu I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. Ōura Nobuyuki’s print series Holding Perspective, stirred up controversy when first exhibited in Japan in 1986. Ōura’s use of Emperor Hirohito’s image in his collage-style prints was deemed a violation of the Emperor’s personal rights. For example, in one print, Ōura’s juxtaposition of the Emperor’s portrait as a young boy in a western dress with Man Ray’s photograph of female nudes was seen as provocative and irreverent. As a result, the catalogue of Oura’s exhibition was destroyed by government order. The controversy overshadowed Oura’s intention to use the Emperor’s image to construct a “self-portrait” and express the uneasiness he felt during his ten-year stay in New York. In this print, the young prince and the female body are both subjects of the domineering gaze. As a foreigner seeking to assimilate into Western society, Ōura empathized with the Emperor, who grew up in a rapidly Westernizing Japan under the public graze. The print is currently on view int the 20-21 gallery flat files. With thanks to Ai-lian Liu for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.