Kan Kawada
幹川田
Japanese, 1924–1999
Interior, 1976
stencil on paper
Gift of Ted and Marcia Marks in memory of Emily Howe Marks
2011.30.6
Kawada studied with Serizawa Keisuke, one of the great masters of the katazome stencil dying process, which used paper stencils to create decorative fabrics with bold colors and complex patterns. The sharp lines of the tatami mats lining the floor and the treatment of the wooden grilles covering the windows in Kawada’s Interior are evocative of these paper cutouts. Kawada perfected pictorial perspective, achieving a high degree of accuracy. His representation of structural forms as large intersecting blocks of color emphasizes the strength of the thick cypress beam construction typical of Late-Edo period homes such as this Kusakabe House from the 1860’s. Once the home of a family of Edo-period Japanese merchants, this entry room is adorned with traditional accents. Archetypical antique features, such as a daidokoro sunken hearth and a small Shinto shrine, speak to the long cultural history of Japan still present during the rapid modernization of the 1970s.
H.T.
