Ernest Fenollosa
Encyclopedia
Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (February 18, 1853 – September 21, 1908) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professor of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...

 at Tokyo Imperial University. An important educator during the modernization of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 during the Meiji Era, Fenollosa was an enthusiastic Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...

 who did much to preserve traditional Japanese art
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...

.

Biography

Fenollosa was the son of Manuel Francisco Ciriaco Fenollosa and Mary Silsbee (Fenollosa) and attended Hacker Grammar School in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...

, and the Salem High School before going on to study philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 at Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

, where he graduated in 1874. After a year at the art school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...

, during which time he married Elizabeth Goodhue Millett, he traveled to Japan in 1878 at the invitation of American zoologist and Orientalist Edward S. Morse
Edward S. Morse
Edward Sylvester Morse was an American zoologist and orientalist.-Early life:Morse was born in Portland, Maine as the son of a Congregationalist preacher. His mother, who did not share her husband's religious beliefs, encouraged her son's interest in the sciences...

 to teach political economy and philosophy at the Imperial University at Tokyo. There he studied ancient temples, shrines and art treasures with his assistant, Okakura Kakuzō
Okakura Kakuzo
was a Japanese scholar who contributed to the development of arts in Japan. Outside of Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea.-Biography:...

.

During his time in Japan, Fenollosa helped create the nihonga
Nihonga
or literally "Japanese-style paintings" is a term used to describe paintings that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials...

(Japanese) style of painting with Japanese artists Kanō Hōgai
Kano Hogai
was a 19th century Japanese painter of the Kanō school. One of the last of the Kanō painters, Hōgai's works reflect the deep traditions of the school, but also at times show hints of experimentation with Western methods and styles...

 (1828–1888) and Hashimoto Gahō
Hashimoto Gaho
was a Japanese painter, one of the last to paint in the style of the Kanō school.Born in Edo, he studied painting under Kanō Shōsen'in, and was influenced as well by the work of Kanō Hōgai. He created many works in the traditional style of the Kanō school, using color & gold, or otherwise...

 (1835–1908). In May 1882 he delivered a lecture on "An Explanation of the Truth of Art," which was widely circulated and quoted.

After eight years at the University, he helped found the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Tokyo Imperial Museum
Tokyo National Museum
Established 1872, the , or TNM, is the oldest and largest museum in Japan. The museum collects, houses, and preserves a comprehensive collection of art works and archaeological objects of Asia, focusing on Japan. The museum holds over 110,000 objects, which includes 87 Japanese National Treasure...

, and subsequently acted as its director in 1888. In this period, he helped to draft the text of a law for the preservation of temples and shrines and their art treasures.

Fenollosa converted to Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 and was given the name Teishin. He was also granted the name Kano Eitan Masanobu, placing him in the lineage of the Kanō school
Kano school
The ' is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting until the Meiji period.It was founded by Kanō Masanobu , a contemporary of Sesshū and student of Shūbun...

, who had served as painters to the Tokugawa shoguns. While resident in Japan, Fenollosa's accomplishments included the first inventory of Japan's national treasures, leading to the discovery of ancient Chinese scrolls brought to Japan by traveling monks centuries earlier, and rescuing many Buddhist artifacts which would otherwise have been destroyed under the Haibutsu kishaku
Haibutsu kishaku
is a term that indicates a current of thought continuous in Japan's history which advocates the expulsion of Buddhism from Japan...

 movement. For these achievements, the Emperor Meiji
Emperor Meiji
The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...

 of Japan decorated him with the Order of the Rising Sun
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...

 and the Order of the Sacred Treasures
Order of the Sacred Treasures
The is a Japanese Order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan as the Order of Meiji. It is awarded in eight classes . It is generally awarded for long and/or meritorious service and considered to be the lowest of the Japanese orders of merit...

.

Fenollosa was able to amass a large collection of Japanese art during his stay in Japan. In 1886, he sold his art collection to Boston physician Charles Goddard Weld
Charles Goddard Weld
Charles Goddard Weld , was a Boston-area physician, sailor, philanthropist, and art lover. Weld, a resident of Brookline, Massachusetts and a scion of the Welds of that area, practiced surgery for many years, but ultimately gave it up to manage his family's fortune...

 (1857–1911) on the condition that it go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and in 1890 he returned to Boston to serve as curator of the department of Oriental Art. There Fenollosa was asked to choose Japanese art for display at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. He also organized Boston's first exhibition of Chinese painting
Chinese painting
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...

 in 1894. In 1896, he published Masters of Ukioye, a historical account of Japanese paintings and color prints exhibited at the New York Fine Arts Building. However, his public divorce and immediate remarriage in 1895 to the writer Mary McNeill Scott (1865–1954) outraged Boston society, leading to his dismissal from the Museum in 1896.

He returned to Japan in 1897 to accept a position as Professor of English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 at the Tokyo Higher Normal School at Tokyo. Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn , known also by the Japanese name , was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things...

 considered Fenollosa a friend; and Hearn almost believed that he visited the professor's home too often.

In 1900, he returned to the United States to write and lecture on Asia. His 1912 work in two volumes concentrates on art before 1800 but offers Hokusai
Hokusai
was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting...

's prints as a window of beauty after Japanese art had become too modern for Fenollosa's taste: "Hokusai is a great designer, as Kipling and Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...

 are great poets. He has been called the Dickens of Japan."

After his death in London in 1908, Fenollosa's unpublished notes on Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...

 and Japanese Noh
Noh
, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...

 drama were confided by his widow to noted poet Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...

 who, with William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...

, used them to solidify the growing interest in Far Eastern literature among modernist writers. Pound subsequently finished Fenollosa's work with the aid of Arthur Waley
Arthur Waley
Arthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...

, the noted British sinologist.

Fenollosa's body was cremated in London, and his ashes returned to the Hōmyō-in chapel of Mii-dera
Mii-dera
', formally called ', is a Buddhist temple located at the foot of Mount Hiei, in the city of Ōtsu, in Shiga Prefecture. It is only a short distance from both Kyoto, and Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. The head temple of the Tendai Jimon sect, it is something of a sister temple to Enryakuji, at...

, (where he had been tonsured) for burial. His tombstone was paid for by the Tokyo School of Fine Arts.

See also

  • Modernist poetry in English
    Modernist poetry in English
    Modernist poetry in English is generally considered to have emerged in the early years of the 20th century with the appearance of the Imagists. In common with many other modernists, these poets wrote in reaction to the perceived excesses of Victorian poetry, with its emphasis on traditional...

  • American philosophy
    American philosophy
    American philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...

  • List of American philosophers

Further reading

  • Ezra Pound
    Ezra Pound
    Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...

    , Cathay: For the Most Part from the Chinese of Rihaku, from the notes of Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga, London: Elkin Mathews, 1915.
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