, was a Japanese

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

and

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

, remembered as one of the "Big Three" art critics of

postwar Japan Postwar Japan is the period in Japanese history beginning with the surrender of Japan to the Allies of World War II on 2 September 1945, and lasting at least until the end of the Shōwa era in 1989. Despite the massive devastation it suffered ...

(alongside

Yoshiaki Tōno Yoshiaki is a masculine Japanese given name. Written forms Yoshiaki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *孔明, "even bright" *義明, "justice, bright" *義昭, "justice, bright" *義 ...

and Yūsuke Nakahara).

Early life and education

Ichirō Hariu was born on December 1, 1925, in the city of

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

. Hariu graduated from

Tohoku University is a public research university in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. It is colloquially referred to as or . Established in 1907 as the third of the Imperial Universities, after the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, it initially focused on sc ...

with a degree in literature in 1948, before going on to attend graduate school at

Tokyo University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

. While in graduate school, he participated in the

Yoru no Kai Yoru no Kai (夜の会, "Night Society," est. 1947/1948) was a short-lived but highly influential art research and discussion group founded in early postwar Japan by two major theorists, Kiyoteru Hanada and Tarō Okamoto. While Hanada was a literar ...

("Nighttime Society") literary society alongside

Tarō Okamoto was a Japanese artist, art theorist, and writer. He is particularly well known for his avant-garde paintings, public sculptures, and murals, his theorization of traditional Japanese culture, and his avant-garde artistic practices. Biography ...

Kiyoteru Hanada was a prominent Japanese literary critic and essayist. Hanada is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential advocates and theorists of the postwar avant-garde art movement. Jukki Hanada is his grandson. Biography Hanada was born in the Higa ...

Kōbō Abe , known by his pen name , was a Japanese writer, playwright and director. His 1962 novel ''The Woman in the Dunes'' was made into an Woman in the Dunes, award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kaf ...

, and others. In 1953, Hariu followed the majority of other writers and artists in Japan in joining the

Japan Communist Party The is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest List of political parties in Japan, political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest List of communist parties#Modern n ...

, as a way of expiating his shame for having supported wartime Japanese militarism.

Career

As an art critic, Hariu initially supported art that adhered the Communist party's policies of promoting socialist revolution. However, over time he became increasingly opposed to JCP policies and supported the emergence of avant-garde art that broke free from conventional styles of socialist realism and Communist party orthodoxy. As early as 1953, Hariu complained that the socialist realist art promoted by the party "lacked originality." In the late 1950s, Hariu became one of the first Japanese Marxist critics to embrace

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

and

Art Informel Informalism or Art Informel () is a pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the abstract and gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World War II, similar to American abstract express ...

. Hariu supported the Anpo protests in 1960, but opposed the passive role taken by the JCP. In 1961, Hariu was expelled from the party for joining other writers in criticizing the party's political and cultural policies, and in 1962, he joined other art prominent critics in protesting the implementation of new restrictions on the previously freewheeling and unregulated

Yomiuri Indépendant Exhibition The , affectionately nicknamed "Yomiuri Anpan," was a famously permissive, unjuried, free-to-exhibit art exhibition held annually in Tokyo, Japan from 1949 to 1963. Sponsored by the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' newspaper, the exhibition was held at the To ...

. As his stature in Japan's art and literary community grew, Hariu became involved in professional associations and organizing international art exhibitions. In 1968, he served as commissioner of the Japanese pavilion for the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, and served in a similar capacity for the

Sao Paulo Biennale SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of ...

in 1977 and 1977. Hariu was opposed, however, to the participation of artists in the state-sponsored

Expo '70 The or Expo '70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, between 15 March and 13 September 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fair ...

and declined to take part. Hariu was an active participant in the

New Japanese Literature Association The was a professional association for Japanese writers, poets, and literary critics that existed from 1945 to 2005. For many years, the association was under the influence of the Japan Communist Party, before breaking away in the 1960s. In the ...

(''Shin Nihon Bungakkai'') for more than five decades, and was the Association's chairman when it dissolved in 2005. In 2005, Hariu starred in

Nobuyuki Ōura Nobuyuki Ōura (大浦信行, Ō''ura Nobuyuki,'' born 1949, Toyama) is a Japanese artist and filmmaker who has been referred to in English as Ohura Nobuyuki. He has been described as an artist who "constantly pushes the limits of expression," as ...

's avant-garde documentary film ''The Heart of Japan: Ichirō Hariu, the Man Who Embraced the Whole of Japan'' ( 日本心中:　針生一郎・日本を丸ごと抱え込んでしまった男), a 90-min fantastical film exploring the correlation between self and otherness and the many layers of Japan's history by following Hariu as he walks around

Gwangju Gwangju (; ), formerly romanized as Kwangju, is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated Special cities of South Korea, metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Hariu died of heart failure on May 26, 2010, at the age of 84.

References

Citations

Sources cited

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hariu, Ichiro Japanese art critics Japanese literary critics 20th-century Japanese essayists Japanese communists People from Sendai Writers from Miyagi Prefecture Tohoku University alumni University of Tokyo alumni 1925 births 2010 deaths