Official

2022/06 at Yumejigo Earth Museum "Shonen Sanso"

Yumeji seems to have been very popular.

Tamaki, Hikono, and leaves.

He was active in the Meiji Taisho era and is still popular, and there are several museums nationwide, but no matter which museum you go, this "three women" will always be introduced. Each is a person who met, snuggled up, and lived together in the era when Yumeji was active.

Three women introduced by Yuwaku Yumejikan Kanazawa　→ Here

His human image, which can be imagined from paintings, such as beauty paintings, has a very pure image. However, when I got into the Yumeji Museum without knowing anything while holding such a "Yumeji Statue", these three people were suddenly introduced, and probably "Oh?" I think so.

"Dream 2, maybe a woman?"

However, when I went a little further and looked into Yumeji and these three women, the number of places that seemed to be "he was also an ordinary person" gradually increased, and after understanding such a human image, When I look at his work in front of me, I feel a mysterious and tasty work.

Perhaps that's the real attraction of Yumeji, so I think Yumeji's museums all over the country are all the way introducing these three women.

Yumeji Takehisa Ikaho Memorial Hall 2022/10

Yumeji loved traveling very much. And I often moved, changed my daily life, and tried to gain various experiences.

Staying in a new land and meeting people in a new landscape or meeting people was the driving force of his creative activities, and for Yumeji, who is said to have had to draw without the model forward, in a sense, he had to always face new women and keep in love with them.

Near the intersection of Gofuku Bridge in Chuo-ku, Tokyo, there is the site of the former "Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store" that he once issued (opened in 1914).

Gofuku Bridge Intersection, close to Tokyo Station

I don't know why he named this shop "Minatoya", but it is said that it was a shop that started to support the life of "Tamaki", who once married, broke up, and lived together. It is said.

Mr. Tamaki was a very beautiful woman.

In Meiji 41 (1908), 22-year-old Yumeji seemed to have been married fast in about three months after encountering older Tamaki-san, and fell in love with Yumeji at first sight. After that, a beauty painting called "Yumeji-style beauty" was created based on her, and it moved to the era of his peak.

On the other hand, the cohabitation of the couple does not warp and loses their registration in more than two years. However, there was also a small son, so Tamaki couldn't continue living, so he repeatedly snuggled up and broke up with Yumeji. "Weird couple's life" with their registration removed continued uninterrupted.

However, Yumeji, who hates binding, basically wanted to break up, so the shop he opened to help Tamaki-san self-support was this "Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store".

Past article of the monument of Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store (Yoimachikusa)　→ Here

This shop is a two-story wooden building located three or four houses east of Gofuku Bridge. At the front of the store, a large Japanese lantern of 1.5 meters with the word "Minatoya Ezo Paper Store" was lowered, and Tamaki was sitting at the store number. It seems that the platanus on the street added color to the store, and the branches were covered with bird baskets.

If you go to the port shop to see the picture of Yumeji-style beauty, the model is on the store number there, so all the young women who visit are probably surprised and buy cute "Yumeji brand" items That's right. Byakuren Yanagihara, one of the beauty of Daishozo, also went to Tokyo every time he came to Tokyo.

It seems that Yumeji fans, mainly young women, flooded the port shop, and the store flourished, but drawing students and writers who long for Yumeji gathered and functioned as a place like a small social place. It seems to have been

At this port shop, Yumeji encounters Hikono Kasai, aspiring painter who will later be called "Yumeji's beloved woman".

On the other hand, a young man of the painter named "Aogo Togo" enters and exits on a daily basis, and while gradually performing a substitute for Yumeji, who is likely to be away, he becomes close friends with Tamaki.

And in fact, it seems that Hikono and Aoko were in love before, and a "weird square relationship" was born here in Minatoya.

Yumeji is said to have less going to the port shop by meeting Hikono-san and no longer served items. Originally, it was a shop that started thinking about parting with Tamaki-san, so it can not continue without Yumeji. In about two years, this shop ended.

After that, Yumeji broke up with Maki, who left Tokyo, and walked through the Hikono era, which is said to have been the happiest of Yumeji's students. "Minatoya" has become a place as the name implies, directing "parting and meeting" for Yumeji.

By the way, there is a monument on the site of the former "Minatoya Ezo Paper Store" that he once issued (the site is under construction), but I will look at the picture embedded in the monument.

This picture (Taisho 3 (1914)), which is said to have been painted when the port shop opened.

Is the woman holding her hand on the platanus on the street tree on the left?　Then it would be dreamy to stand in front of Japanese lantern, the port at the right end.

If so, the woman in the middle is probably Hikono?　

Is it a blue child behind it?

In addition, there is a geisha-like one behind it, but is this woman Kikuko Kagurazaka, where Yumeji went at that time?

As weird knowledge increases, this picture also looks strangely strangely strange. I don't think that's actually the case.

By the way, what you can see behind it is the Gofuku Bridge, which was newly renovated around this time in terms of silhouette. In line with the opening of Tokyo Station (December 1914), this bridge and the blacksmith bridge over the outer moat in front of the station seemed to have been rebuilt. Gofuku Bridge was characterized by a huge main pillar with bridge lights. It seems that it was a very artistic bridge with beautiful railings. Now the outer moat is reclaimed and you cannot see the bridge.

The building with a tower that can be seen in the distance is a white brick building, the new building of Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, which opened on October 1, 1914 on the same day as the Minatoya Esoshi Store.

It was a renaissance-style artistic architecture modeled on a department store in London, and was the first department store to have an escalator installed. The still present lion statue of Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi was placed at this time.

These postcards were also gaining popularity. Yumeji has also published many postcards to the world. There was a glamorous atmosphere in which he could fully demonstrate his talents.

In this port shop, women wore yukata, kimono half collars and obis, and daily necessities such as Chiyogami, stationery, Tenugui, and prints were lined up. It was an epoch-making shop where the painter Yumeji himself "artizes daily necessities" as a brand designer and sold handmade items at his own store.

Looking at the design of the products actually placed in this porthouse, many of them deal with common plants, flowers, fruits, etc., and the subject is not particularly "high quality". In addition, the items placed were not Western items, but in kimono that had been blended into previous life.

Find art in everyday things and design it.

As is said to be Art Nouveau in Japan, I think that the modernity different from that time was in Yumeji design at that time, but it seems that the secret of the popularity of the Yumeji brand was there because it was a modernity that was easy for the common people to accept.

Even if modern people see Yumeji designs more than 100 years ago, it may be that kind of place that they accept them without feeling strange and old.

In his later years, Yumeji loved Mount Haruna in Joshu, and built an atelier on the shores of Lake Haruna to realize "Yumeji's Last Dream".

My dream is to establish the Mount Haruna Industrial Art Institute, which aims to promote industry and tourism by creating arts and crafts rooted in the community.

Atelier recreated on the shores of Lake Haruna 2023/05

In the early Showa era after the Great Kanto Earthquake, Yumeji was lamenting that the artistry of handicrafts created by handicrafts was dispelled by mass-produced products made by machines and headed toward an "era without artistry". It seems like he was lamenting.

"Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store" was once opened in Gofukumachi, Nihonbashi. What was sold at this store was exactly the art created by handwork. What he wanted to do on Mount Haruna might have been a continuation of what he was doing at this "Minatoya Picture Sowing Store".

Unfortunately, Yumeji ended his life with Sasodium in Shinshu Fujimi-cho without realizing this last dream.

It is the intersection of Gofuku Bridge (7/22, 2023).

The building standing on the site of the Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store will be destroyed without any hesitation due to redevelopment. It's a natural landscape in Tokyo.

The urban landscape, which tends to be such a murderous scene, may be the scenery that Yumeji had foreseeed at that time. I think the artistry of buildings and streets is the same.

However, modern people living today also understand that. In recent years, buildings that are being redeveloped are often devised with some ingenuity, and I feel that more buildings that entertain the eyes are increasing.

The area around Yaesu and Nihonbashi River is now undergoing redevelopment. The former Nihonbashi Gofukumachi area, where Yumeji's store was located, will be reborn through large-scale redevelopment utilizing the waterside space along the Nihonbashi River.

It will take some time to see what kind of cityscape it will be, but let's look forward to it.

<Information referenced>
"Walking in Chuo Ward-Visit Historic Sites and History-(8th Collection)" Public Relations Division, Planning Department, Chuo-ku / 2010
"Color Books 239) Yumeji Takehisa, Masanobu Hosono / Childcare Company / 1972
"New Edition, Yumeji Museum 4 Portya Esoshi Paper Store" Gakken / 1988
"Separate volume weekly Yomiuri January 1976 issue special feature, Yumeji Ai and Longing" Yomiuri Shimbun
"Yume 2 Diary 1 (Meining 40 to 4 years)" by Yumeji Takehisa / Mikio Nagata / Chikuma Shobo / 1987
"Tokyo Bridge-Waterside Urban Landscape", Takashi Ito Kashima Publishing / 1986
"Central FM Bridge of the City of Water" Gofuku Bridge

Yumejigo Earth Museum (Direct House Memorial Hall, Shonen Sanso, Main Building) Exhibition 2022/06
Yumeji Takehisa Ikaho Memorial Hall Exhibition 2022/10
Yumeji Takehisa Museum Exhibition 2022/11
Yumeji Takehisa Lake Haruna Atelier Exhibition 2023/5
Museum exhibition in Fujimi-cho and Kogen 2023/7