TANAKA ISSON AND POSTWAR NIHONGA: LANDSCAPES OF LIMINALITY AND ISOLATION

Abstract

This dissertation examines the career and works of nihonga (Japanese-style) artist Tanaka Isson (1908–1977), initially marginalised but later accepted posthumously by the mainstream art world. The study addresses a gap in the scholarly attention paid to nihonga and Isson, highlighting the artist and the politics of post-war nihonga art world structures. Employing an analytical framework with the theory of liminality and a methodology of wilderness in this study elucidates Isson’s peripheral position in the art world, his paintings, and the implications of art production from the peripheral location of Amami.

I argue that Isson’s Amami paintings re-introduce new landscapes and perspectives of the periphery to mainland Japan and are a valuable contribution to the discourse of Yaponesia advocated by Shimao Toshio and other Okinawa reversionists. His works expand on the current discourse of landscape in nihonga and introduce a perspective from the southern islands.