Uemura Shoen
A Nihonga painter born in Kyoto. She made elegant, dignified women her lifelong subject, and in 1948 (Showa 23) became the first woman to receive the Order of Culture.
Uemura Shoen was born in 1875 (Meiji 8) at the Chigiriya, a tea shop on Shijo Street in Kyoto. Her real name was Tsune. Her father died before she was born, and her mother ran the shop while supporting her daughter's painting. At 12 she entered the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting and studied under Suzuki Shonen. She later studied with Kono Bairei and Takeuchi Seiho.
In 1890 (Meiji 23), at 15, her "Beauties of the Four Seasons" shown at the Third National Industrial Exhibition won a prize, and she drew notice early. She won awards repeatedly at the Bunten (the Ministry of Education art exhibition), and in 1916 (Taisho 5) gained permanent exemption from jury selection. In an age when most painters were men, she sought to paint a woman's dignity as seen through a woman's eyes, and left works drawn from Noh scenes and works depicting the customs of the Edo to Meiji periods. Her major works include "Flame" (1918, Taisho 7; Tokyo National Museum), showing a woman burning with jealousy, and "Jo no Mai" (1936, Showa 11; Tokyo University of the Arts, Important Cultural Property), showing a dancing girl.
"Mother and Child" (1934, Showa 9) at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, shows a young mother holding a small child to her breast, in clean lines and calm color. Painters have continued across three generations, with her son the Nihonga painter Uemura Shoko and her grandson Uemura Atsushi. She died in 1949 (Showa 24).