Steve Jobs The Origin of "Beauty" July 1st 17:46
Steve Jobs changed the world by developing masterpieces of IT one after another.
It has been 10 years since the regrettable death in October.
The products he created are still fascinating the world with their functionality and beautiful and innovative designs.
It is known that Zen of Japanese culture influenced Jobs' aesthetic sense, but in fact, before he came into contact with Zen, he saw Japanese "new prints" as a child, especially Hasui Kawase. I was greatly influenced by (Sui).
Jobs follows the quest for simple beauty that he learned from Hasui.
At the end of the sentence, I also wrote a list of new prints purchased by Jobs.
(International Broadcasting Station, Kentaro Saeki)
Encounter with Hasui Kawase
Steve Jobs first encountered Hasui Kawase's work at the home of his best friend Bill Fernandez, who lived in Sunnyvale, California, where he met when he was still a teenager.
The two went back and forth between each other's homes, playing around with electronic devices.
Bill will later become Apple's first full-time employee.
They didn't join clubs such as school sports and theater, and while taking a walk, they talked about what to do if they liked girls, what they thought of Bob Dylan, what the meaning of life was, and so on. Was there.
Eventually, Bill began to mess with electronics, pulling in Jobs, immersing himself in each other's homes and making things.
The garage of the two houses became a base for business activities.
And for Jobs, Bill's house became the first place to come into contact with "beauty."
The photo below is Bill's mother, Bambi, relaxing with her dog in the living room.
And three Japanese-style paintings on the wall ...
In fact, these three are the works of Hasui Kawase, a Japanese "new print".
In the Fernandez family, new prints hung on the wall.
These were bought by Bill's grandfather little by little since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
He said he fell in love with Hasui's work at a gallery on his way to work in Chicago.
The 1930s was when the popularity of "new prints" ignited in the United States.
In 1930 and 1936, the "Contemporary Japanese Print Exhibition" was held at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, and the popularity of new prints accepted as art reached its peak.
Hasui's elaborate style, which specializes in landscape painting, received high praise and was named alongside "3H" along with Hokusai and Hiroshige of Ukiyo-e.
Bambi, a close friend's mother, studied the history of the Far East at the prestigious Stanford University and was familiar with Japanese art.
At that time, Jobs was particularly fond of Hasui's work, all three of the photos below.
Mr. Bambi talked about Jobs who came to play with humor.
Bambi, my best friend's mother,
"Steve was staring at three new prints every time he passed through the living room, and one day he suddenly said to me,'I want you to divide the prints.' I can't give up my dad's collection. ”But after that, every time I come to play, I stare at my eyes asking me to share the prints.”
Jobs liked it so much.
One day after the establishment of Apple, when Mr. Bambi talked about his favorite new print artist, Hiroshi Yoshida, next to Hasui Kawase, Jobs replied, "No, Hasui is the best!" That's it.
Of the three, Jobs also ordered "Akame Senju no Taki" at a gallery in Tokyo in August 1983.
I don't know if I could get it, but I think he kept the feelings he had seen at his best friend's house until he became an adult.
In this work, the waterfall and the autumn leaves are drawn very realistically, but if you look closely, there is no shadow of the autumn leaves that should have been reflected on the surface of the water.
Hasui tried to create something simpler and more innovative by removing unnecessary elements.
Bill says Jobs was strongly in sympathy with Hasui's aesthetic sense.
For Jobs, it was a source of inspiration for his aesthetic sense.
Bill Fernandez
"I think that was the beginning of everything. I like the simplicity. I like this aesthetic. I like this sensibility." As Steve shows in his Apple products. A lifelong attachment to simplicity and elegance. "
The charm of Shin-hanga
What is the "new print" that Jobs saw?
"Shin-hanga" is a woodblock print produced from the latter half of the Meiji era to the Showa era. That's right.
We asked Shoichiro Watanabe, the third-generation owner of the publisher, about the difference from Ukiyo-e.
The famous "Fine Wind, Clear Morning" in Hokusai is said to be made of only seven rubs.
It is said that it has an extremely low frequency of ukiyo-e for multicolored ukiyo-e.
In the first place, Ukiyo-e is made to maximize the effect with as little effort as possible.
Although it is omitted, it produces a good effect on the contrary.
On the other hand, the new print "Zojoji no Yuki" has a sliding frequency of 42 times, which is 6 times higher.
Mr. Watanabe explains.
Shoichiro Watanabe
"" Fine Wind,
Clear Morning
"has three colors in the mountains and only three colors in the sky. On the other hand," Snow in Zojoji "has six colors in the sky alone and the same in the trees. It takes countless steps. In addition, the kimono and umbrella of the person also have a considerable amount of rubbing. That much depth is given and a considerable amount of energy is applied to the invisible part. Is a new print. "
Since it takes time to produce "Shin-hanga", only a few hundred copies of a single work were printed.
This process, which takes a daunting amount of time and effort, created the artistry of the new prints.
Mr. Watanabe says about his sympathy for Jobs' new prints.
Mr. Shoichiro Watanabe
"Probably, for people like Jobs who are developing cutting-edge technology and thinking" something ingenuity ", I think that it will come to a pinch. Only the visible part of the work Rather, I think I felt something like the awesome blood and sweat crystals of the craftsman underneath, so I think I bought a new print in support of that. I'm very happy. "
When building the product, Jobs was careful not only to design the appearance, but also to make the inside of the invisible product, the arrangement of parts, and the position of the wiring beautiful.
Charisma that appeared in Ginza
Jobs first appeared in the long-established "Kabaya Gallery" on the main street in Ginza, Tokyo in March 1983.
A young man in his late twenties wearing a shabby shirt and jeans presented a business card to Haruo Matsuoka, who responded at the print corner, saying, "I want to collect new prints from now on, please tell me various things."
After that, Jobs visited the gallery every time he came to Japan and continued to buy new prints.
It also overlapped with the milestones of his life and work.
The work of Hasui that Jobs bought when he first visited the store was Mt. Fuji.
This is a subject that foreigners like very much.
The third time was Mt. Fuji.
Eventually, Mr. Matsuoka notices Jobs' aesthetic sense.
The aesthetic eye was professional grade.
Many of the purchased items were from the early days of Hasui, especially those that were burnt down in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 (Taisho 12) and the number of remaining items was small.
Moreover, when choosing a work, it is decided by a prompt decision.
Mr. Matsuoka said, "It seems that he liked the sophisticated ones that had clear taste criteria and eliminated waste. It was exactly the opposite of the average customer who chose while talking with the clerk." There is.
Jobs announced the Macintosh computer in January 1984, but two weeks earlier he was in Japan and bought five new prints, including four from Hasui.
Of these, Hasui's "Sanjikkenbori no Kureyuki" is also regarded as the masterpiece of prints depicting snow scenes.
Hasui said that expressing snow with "dots" lacked a sense of realism, and rubbed the woodblock with a whetstone or scrubbing brush to express the snow that was blown with elaborate rubbing.
It was around the time when I was making new works one after another, and Hasui was satisfied with the result.
When Jobs visited the store for the fourth time, he ordered more than 30 works.
He seemed to be fascinated by the new prints, and he seemed to have a lot of fun while looking at the Hasui art book in the store.
Of these, "Nara Nigatsudo" expresses the transparency peculiar to prints by emphasizing the blue color.
It's been more than two years since Hasui started woodblock prints, and he's riding a booming wave.
Even when the company Next, which was launched after Apple was banished, was in trouble, his passion for new prints did not change.
What I bought in April 1987 was an unmanned temple of darkness highlighted in blue.
Jobs's solitary figure is superimposed on the work.
Jobs purchased at least 43 new prints during the 20 years he met with Mr. Matsuoka, and more than half of them, 25, were Hasui.
There were 33 items as ordered.
Mr. Matsuoka has four Jobs business cards left.
Junko Nishiyama, senior curator of the Chiba City Museum of Art, who is familiar with the new prints, says that the works selected by Jobs have a strong distinctive taste.
Chiba City Museum of Art Junko Nishiyama Senior Curator
"Snow scene, vermilion torii gate and shrine, and a woman with a Japanese umbrella. I've heard that these three are the factors that make Japanese woodblock prints popular with foreigners. , There are almost no such works in the Jobs collection. "
Jobs preferred the sober and lonely landscape, rather than the exotic landscape that Westerners prefer.
The colors are darker than the bright ones, and most of them have a monotone gradation.
Chiba City Museum of Art Junko Nishiyama Curator
"Hasui Kawase himself likes quiet and lonely things, and he says that is his world. Jobs's taste is actually exactly the same as that of Hasui. It looks like you're doing it. "
Thank you for meeting the new prints
Jobs was grateful to have met a "new print" at his best friend's house.
Around 1982, before the debut of Macintosh Computer, Jobs, who returned from Japan, visited Bill's mother, Bambi, and said:
"There was only a calendar on the wall of my house, which grew up two miles from here, but I had the opportunity to see Japanese prints at your house."
And when she saw the heavy thing handed over by Jobs, she lost her words.
It was a full-fledged Japanese art book covering Hasui's works.
Bambi continues.
Bill's mother, Bambi,
"I knew I liked Hasui's work and gave me a present. I thought I wanted to see how much fun I had when I saw the new prints I had. Masu "
Jobs presented Hasui's work as a gift along with the art book.
It was the same work that Jobs bought for the first time at "Kabaya Gallery".
It's unclear because Bambi's memory of the due date is ambiguous, but maybe this was what Jobs bought at the time.
Jobs also presented his best friend with Hasui's work, which is suitable for celebrating the beginning.
Bill Fernandez
"It's a new print given by Steve at my wedding. I was very happy to know that he still liked the new print. I was very happy with the gift. I like
Jobs in his lifetime talks very little about new prints.
However, knowing these behaviors, it turns out that the encounter with Hasui was very important for Jobs.
New prints in my heart
Jobs was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 48, but for a long time he continued to make hit products while fighting the disease and died in 2011 at the age of 56.
After his death, the first page of his memoirs of his daughter Lisa's relationship with her father describes the bed three months before Jobs died.
"(In my father's room) there was a print of the temple's twilight and Hasui at dusk. A piece of pink light stretched over the wall."
What surprised me was that it was spelled "Hasui" in my memoirs.
How many readers can understand "Hasui" as "Kawase Hasui"?
Perhaps "Hasui" was a common language for the two.
The father may have told his daughter the charm of "Hasui".
I asked Mr. Matsuoka about 70 works that Jobs purchased and those that he had ordered, which may have been in the room.
Then, Mr. Matsuoka immediately pointed to Hasui's work, which depicts the five-storied pagoda of Ikegami Honmonji Temple in Ota Ward, Tokyo.
Haruo Matsuoka
"I think it
's
probably the time when I realized my death, but I had a relationship with Jobs when he was young, so the image at that time is strong and sentimental. I don't think I'm a person, but I'm still a human being, so at the end of my life, I think I had the feeling of twilight and dying. "
A computer and a "new print" that Jobs met as a teenager.
At first glance, the two seem unrelated, but Jobs was different.
The inspiration from the "ultimate simplicity" of the new print was reproduced on a computer, changing our way of thinking, learning, and life forever.
For Jobs, Hasui Kawase was the origin of "beauty."
43 new prints purchased by Jobs at "Kabaya Gallery" (in order of production year)
▼ Kawase Tomoemizu 25 points
"Shiobara Okaneji" (1918, Taisho 7)
"Shiobara field descent" (1918, Taisho 7)
"Shiobara Shihogama" (1918, Taisho 7)
"Shiobara
Arayuji"
(1919, Taisho 8)
"Ikaho no Natsu" (1919, Taisho 8)
"Snow Whitebeard" (1920, Taisho 9)
"Terashima Village Living in the Snow" (1920, Taisho 9)
"Three "Tomabori no Kureyuki" (1920, Taisho 9)
"Nara Nigetsudo" (1921, Taisho 10)
"Afushi Rabbit Kannon" (1922, Taisho 11)
"Karatsu" (1922, Taisho 11)
"Osaka Takatsu" (1924, Taisho 13)
"New Ohashi" (1926, Taisho 15)
"After the rain in Akashi-cho" (1928, Showa 3)
"Late autumn of Ichikawa" (1930, Showa 5)
"Akatsuki of Lake Yamanaka" (1931, Showa 6)
"Fuji no Yukiharu" (1932, Showa 7)
"
Joshu Hoshi
Onsen" (1933, Showa 8)
"Kyoto Kiyomizudera" (1933, Showa 8)
"Koshigaya "Snow" (1935, 1935)
"Satsu * Toge no Fuji" (1935, 1935)
* "Sat", "Taru",
"Funatsu no Fuji" (1936, 1936),
"Akai Sunset" (1937, 1937)
"Nishi
Izugi Negative" (
1937, 1937)
"Yukiharu Yoshida" (1944, 1944)
▼ Torii Koto 8 points
"Band" (1920, Taisho 9)
"Rain" (1929, Showa 4)
"Makeup" (1929, Showa 4)
"Yuge" (1929, Showa 4)
"Hair combing" (1929, Showa 4) Year)
"Snow" (1929, Showa 4)
"Morning hair" (1930, Showa 5)
1 piece Title unknown
▼ Hashiguchi Goyo 5 points
"Hair combing woman" (1920, Taisho 9) 2 points
"Kyoto" "Sanjo Ohashi" (1920, Taisho 9)
"Snow Ibukiyama" (1934, Showa 9)
1 piece Title unknown
▼ Ito Fukamizu 5 points
"Anti-mirror" (1910, Meiji 43)
"Datemaki no Onna" (
1910, Meiji 43)
1921, Taisho 10)
"Cool" (1922, Taisho 11)
"Oshiroi" (1923, Taisho 12)
"Snowstorm" (1932, Showa 7)
Kentaro Saeki,
International Broadcasting Station
Joined in 1987.
After working at
Akita Broadcasting Station, Manila Bureau Chief,
Hachinohe Branch, Mito Broadcasting Station, etc.