This year started with a foray into the material and social history of animal glue, a traditional adhesive and binding agent for pigments still widely used in nihonga (modern Japanese-style painting). The deep dive was occasioned by the book Nikawa wo tabi suru—Hyōgen wo tsunagu bunka no genryū (The journey to animal glue—Tracing the cultural source of expression), which was produced by nihonga painter Uchida Aguri in conjunction with a 2021 special exhibition of the same name at Musashino Art University.
According to the book’s preface, the last traditional producer of sanzenbon nikawa, the most-commonly used variety of animal glue for painting since the Edo period, went out of business in 2010. Among nihonga painters and specialists involved in the preservation and restoration of cultural properties, this event seems to have led to an intense interest in both animal glue and the conditions surrounding its production. The book starts off with an extended conversation between Uchida, fellow painter Yamamoto Naoaki, and Ueda Kunisuke of Uematsu Japanese Art Supply about the history of painting materials and art supply stores. From there, the book takes an in-depth look at animal-glue production across time and geography. It sets the stage with an introduction to the history of animal use among the Ainu in Hokkaido and people of the northern territories, then explores the traditional leather industries of Osaka, Tokyo, Saitama, and Hyogo, moving back and forth between medieval, premodern, modern, and contemporary times. The text touches on themes such as meat consumption, social stigmas and stratification, and the physical distribution of and commerce surrounding animal products. It is beautifully illustrated with diagrams and colored photographs and contains detailed process information about the technical aspects of traditional and modern leather tanning techniques as well as animal glue production. The insights into adjacent industries, such as taiko drum making and restoration, were also quite interesting.
Taken together, it is a wonderful examination of how the material conditions of our societies can influence the physical manifestations of art and expression. I greatly enjoyed seeing how painters and art critics interacted with these subjects. In particular, I became deeply interested in the paradoxical material identity of nihonga as a modern genre—a topic I plan to explore in upcoming entries.
One of my foremost motivations for starting this blog was to try writing encyclopedia-style entries on the art forms, movements, techniques, and materials that I encounter and research. Specifically, I wanted to write summaries that would answer the questions I developed while reading—entries with the kind of information I would want as a translator grappling with the topic for the first time. While I have not yet decided on an exact format or length, I hope these entries may be useful to other translators or at least somewhat interesting to read. My first entry below, inspired by this book, is a general overview of nihonga with an emphasis on materiality.
1.1
Nihonga (日本画 lit. “Japanese painting”)
Also known as kōsaiga (膠彩画 animal glue painting). The term “nihonga,” frequently glossed as “Japanese-style painting,” was introduced in the latter half of the nineteenth century during the Meiji period to distinguish indigenous painting from Western-style oil painting and watercolor painting. In the field of art history, the term describes works produced from the Meiji period onward, while premodern works are described as nihon kaiga (日本絵画; “Japanese paintings”).
As a genre, nihonga is frequently characterized by its material qualities, specifically the use of manually-mixed paints prepared by combining coarsely-ground “mineral pigments” (iwa-enogu 岩絵具) with a binder of animal glue (nikawa 膠) and water. The extensive use of iwa-enogu is a relatively new development beginning in the twentieth century, made possible by the advent of colorful artificial and synthetic pigments produced to imitate natural, coarsely-ground mineral pigments. Sumi (an ink of lampblack), finely levigated mineral or organic pigments such as ochre (ōdo 黄土) and shell white (gofun 胡粉), metallic pigments (dei 泥), and metal leaf (haku 箔) are also frequently used. The term iwa-enogu refers to both the dry pigments and the resulting paints. When mixed with animal glue, the mineral pigments are suspended within the medium and do not dissolve. As such, iwa-enogu cannot be combined to produce additional colors. The animal glue, which comes in dried, shelf-stable strips, sheets, or pellets, is soaked to create a gel that is then combined with water and heated to produce the medium. Although strips of cow glue called sanzenbon nikawa (三千本膠) are the most common, other glues such as deer (shika nikawa 鹿膠), rabbit (usagi nikawa 兎膠), and fish (nibe 鰾膠) are also used individually or in combination. Once rehydrated, the medium has a short shelf life, as wet animal glue will attract mold or putrefy within hours to days, depending on the season. The resulting paint of pigment and glue is water soluble, so it is possible to wash away and re-do parts of a painting during the creative process. Similarly, the mineral pigments may be reclaimed from unused paint by rinsing away the animal glue in a process called nikawa nuki (膠抜き). The most common supports (shijitai 支持体) for nihonga are Japanese paper and silk, which are typically backed for strength and sized with dōsa (礬水)—a water-based solution of animal glue and alum (myōban 明礬)—to prevent the pigments from blotting or bleeding.
After the end of WWII, the conventional themes, methods, materials, and expressive mannerisms of nihonga underwent a radical transformation. Artists sought to distance the genre from classicist modes and nationalist overtones amid the rise of nihonga metsubōron (日本画滅亡論), a critical discourse decrying the end of nihonga. Around the same time, art supply shops began producing new, synthetic pigments and alternative glues. As galleries continued to replace tea rooms as the primary spaces for art appreciation, artists increasingly favored bold and vivid synthetic colors. Where classical paintings in the Japanese- and Chinese-styles are characterized by thin applications of paint (usu-nuri 薄塗り), new generations of nihonga artists experimented with thick layering and impasto expressions (atsu-nuri 厚塗り) reminiscent of modern Western oil painting and matter art, pushing the material limits of the genre and forging a new identity for nihonga that incorporated the expressive characteristics of contemporary art movements. Today, trends have moved back towards thinner layers of paint. The heavy, coarse pigments and the physical properties of animal glue, which shrinks as it dehydrates but swells in the presence of moisture, have come to pose a conservational challenge for collections holding experimental works of nihonga from the postwar period.
References:
Arai Kei, Nihonga to zairyō: Kindai ni tsukurareta dentō [Nihonga and materials: A tradition created in modern times] (Tokyo: Musashino Bijutsu Daigaku Shuppankyoku, 2015).
Uchida Aguri, ed. Nikawa wo tabi suru—Hyōgen wo tsunagu bunka no genryū [The journey to animal glue—Tracing the cultural source of expression] (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankokai, 2021).