His Paintings
As we have seen from his Bio-Background page, Shiki Masaoka, the haiku poet, was born in Matsuyama in 1867. Shiki is still well known in Japan for introducing a new style of haiku, a short poetic form, and for enhancing the arts.
Shiki liked painting very much. In his childhood he wanted to become a painter one day. He said "Shasei (sketch, realism) is quite necessary to making reports and painting pictures." Also, "I don't want to paint skillfully", wherein he is expressing that he is not endeavoring to create technically perfect "pictures" but rather emotive and interpretive, carefree representations of the objects of his interest at that spontaneous moment of perception and genuine experience. [Note: This word is difficult to translate into English, but in any event, no one can deny that the core of Shiki's haikus is precisely this aesthetic concept of Shasei.] [Second Note: With regard to the the problem of giving "Shasei" the proper equivalent in the English language, R.H. Blyth translated it as the "delineation of nature," which still does not clarify the concept well enough, for it is still saying "the portrayal of Nature."] These "simple" paintings perhaps express Shiki's concepts and thinking, especially about Shasei.
Landscape of a Lighthouse
Pumpkin in a Pot
Hurried to get the Materials Home
Painting Happily
Niwamaezu-Gasan (in front of the garden)
Flowers in a Pot
A Pot and Palette
A Pot
A Peony
A Cockscomb
Paper Dolls
Otafuku (Plain Woman) at Tori-no-ichi
A Fishing Toy
[no title]
a self-portrait
Go to the Original Shiki Masaoka Japanese Source (Site)
(If you wish)