Futako Tamagawaen #3 Futako Tamagawaen #3

Makoto Fujimura, a Nisei (second-generation Japanese immigrant) born and educated in the United States, was introduced to art materials for Japanese-style painting for the first time while he was studying at the Graduate School of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He was converted to Christianity after moving to Japan, and painted the places which helped him deepen his faith in the "Futako Tamagawaen" series. A work from this series, this painting presents the peaceful flow of the Tama river at the center and a red bridge in the far distance. The landscape that gradually emerges out of the hazy layers of paint seems to embody the artist's piety. He seeks a deep symbolic experience, and this gives the picture a quiet intensity. At the same time, the work shows marks of his experiments in dealing with a newly found art material. Mineral pigments for Japanese-style painting are rarely mixed or applied in thick layers, since that would result in dull colors. Fujimura dared to defy the conventional rules and made the landscape loom out of the layered colors. Using this fresh approach in expressing his inner emotions, he opened new possibilities for Japanese-style painting.