51:. The group's tenet centers on its staunch rejection of "old familiar art" and earnest "exploration of a new art," as their manifesto radically called for: "We must destroy everything and create everything." Yoru no Kai offered an early important venue to discuss possible new directions in art and culture through public debates, member meetings, and publications. Although the group members were primarily those in literature, it embraced an interdisciplinary goal, collaborating with the artists collective
154:. In it, the group asserts their desire to search for a new artistic paradigm that made sense in the new, postwar climate in Japan – a goal that involved breaking with the past completely. They wrote: "At this place of creation, we will not be taken in by the exaltation of old familiar art in the name of enlightening the masses or permit the imitation of new art in advanced nations under the pretense of formal investigation. We must destroy everything and create everything."
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flexible, and collective, rather than static and medium-specific, as art production had been during the wartime years. Part of this fluidity and flexibility was embodied by Hanada and
Okamoto's overlapping and complementary philosophies about the necessity for dialectical opposition in the arts. Okamoto's theory of
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groups that it catalyzed. In 1949, after Yoru no Kai had dissolved, Hanada and
Okamoto went on to create the Abangyarudo Geijutsu Kenkyūkai (Avant-garde Art Study Group), which was designed to mentor young artists and critics. Among other activities, the group held a critique of artworks at Kifukuji
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group and its influence on postwar art has been acknowledged. Although Yoru no Kai was only active for a brief period of time, it facilitated key exchanges between artists and writers and introduced young creators to avant-garde ideas. According to art critic Shin'ichi Segi, who participated in Yoru
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encouraged preserving tensions between abstraction and representation; Hanada believed inner and outer reality existed in dialectical tension. These beliefs likely contributed to the format of debate and discussion at Yoru no Kai meetings. As Hanada argued, "revolutionary art is born out of vigorous
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theory. In addition to investigating new frameworks for postwar art and culture, Hanada brought to Yoru no Kai ideas of the importance of
Marxist collective production that he had introduced earlier, to Sōgō Bunka Kyōkai. The idea was that the art world of the postwar period would remain fluid,
240:("Century Society") that had been established in 1948 by Kōbō Abe and some younger artists who also participated in Yoru no Kai. Many young artists who would become prominent in the postwar art world attended or participated in Yoru no Kai, Abangyarudo Geijutsu Kenkyūkai, and
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With its emphasis on artistic exchange as a means of forging new paths in art, Yoru no Kai could also be seen as an early example of – or early attempt at – the "activity-based collectivism" that would grow over the course of the 1950s with the activities of groups such as
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and
Hiroshi Sekine would also join, and many artists and critics would participate. However, besides Okamoto, all of the founding members of Yoru no Kai were figures affiliated with the literary world. Many of them were prominent writers who would become known as the
55:(Century Society) and later recasting itself as Abangyarudo Geijutsu Kenkyūkai (Avant-garde Art Study Group). In doing so, they exerted a significant influence that would be felt into the 1950s, as seen in the emergence of Reportage painters and the formation of
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Yoru no Kai's primary activities involved hosting serialized public debates at Mon Ami with discussion open to attendees. Topics of debate at first included groundbreaking artistic and cultural theories posited by Hanada and
Okamoto, such as Okamoto's
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art movements that are advanced by merciless confrontations between avant-garde artists." He thus advocated for collectivism and opposition within the meetings themselves, and reinforced that verbal debates were necessary for new art.
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no Kai meetings, "the atmosphere of the group was salon-like, it was a place where members exchanged opinions with each other, but from the public format, the result was that it served the role of spreading enlightenment."
150:(新しい芸術の探究, "Exploration of a New Art"). The volume is a collection of essays and debates by Yoru no Kai members, and reveals the group's goals and philosophy. The introduction is considered by some scholars to act as their
71:(錯乱の論理 "The Logic of Chaos"), which resonated with Okamoto's own viewpoints. A group assembled by Okamoto and Hanada met for the first time in May 1947 in the basement of a burned out building in
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The group was formally inaugurated in
January, 1948. In February, they began holding their formal meetings twice a month on Monday nights, at the French restaurant Mon Ami in
19:(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,
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Within the early postwar period in Japan, which was characterized by an abundance of small artistic groups, Yoru no Kai has become well known as a representative
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However, many of the members, including Hanada and
Okamoto, remained active in a loosely affiliated group with which Yoru no Kai had collaborated, known as
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211:(1949) remains one of the best records of the Yoru no Kai's activities, as it records some of their most significant debates and discussions.
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314:, edited by Doryun Chong, Michio Hayashi, Kenji Kajiya, and Fumihiko Sumitomo, 39-40. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2012.
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184:("Theory of Polar Opposites"). The group also debated and discussed broad issues related to arts and culture, such as
138:("Association of Syncretic Culture"). Hanada himself had been part of Sōgō Bunka Kyōkai prior to forming Yoru no Kai.
556:
Reiko Tomii, "Introduction: Collectivism in
Twentieth-Century Japanese Art with a Focus on Operational Aspects of
75:. They switched meeting locations for the first few sessions, meeting at Hanada's home and at Okamoto's studio in
200:, by May 1949, Yoru no Kai had largely dissolved due to internal arguments surrounding Communist politics.
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on the outskirts of Tokyo. The name of the group came from a 1947 painting by
Okamoto titled
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Okamoto and Hanada decided to form Yoru no Kai following the 1947 publication of Hanada's volume,
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Early participants were personally selected by Hanada, and at the first meeting they included
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Avant-garde art and nondominant thought in postwar Japan: image, matter, separation
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Avant-garde art and nondominant thought in postwar Japan: image, matter, separation.
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Ken
Yoshida, "In Focus: Artists' Groups and Collectives in Postwar Japan," in
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Yoshida, Ken. "In Focus: Artists' Groups and Collectives in Postwar Japan."
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525:"Modern Art in Post World War II Japan | Princeton University Library"
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Yoru no Kai edited and published one volume, released in 1949, titled
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236:. The following year, the group merged with another group known as
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https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php/%E5%A4%9C%E3%81%AE%E4%BC%9A
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https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php/%E5%A4%9C%E3%81%AE%E4%BC%9A
362:鳥羽耕史 「〈夜の会〉〈世紀の会〉〈 綜合文化協会〉活動年表」『徳島大学国語国文学』17 (2004), p. 16.
83:("Night") that hung on the wall of his studio at the time.
514:鳥羽耕史「〈世紀の会〉と安部公房を語る：桂川寬氏インタビュー」『言語文化研究』11 (2004), p. 115
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Yoru no Kai was especially influential for the other
475:桂川寬 『廃墟の前衛 : 回想の戦後美術』東京 : 一葉社、 2004, p. 20
294:鳥羽耕史 「〈夜の会〉〈世紀の会〉〈 綜合文化協会〉活動年表」『徳島大学国語国文学』17 (2004)
455:From Postwar to Postmodern: Art in Japan 1945-1989
312:From Postwar to Postmodern: Art in Japan 1945-1989
291:鳥羽耕史「〈世紀の会〉と安部公房を語る：桂川寬氏インタビュー」『言語文化研究』11 (2004)
27:. While Hanada was a literary critic steeped in
157:Yoru no Kai's discussions were often framed by
397:鳥羽耕史 「〈夜の会〉〈世紀の会〉〈 綜合文化協会〉活動年表」, p. 15, p. 19
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168:Taikyokushugi ("Theory of Polar Opposites")
547:瀬木 慎一 『戦後空白期の美術』東京 : 思潮社、 1996, p. 91
560:" in positions 21:2 (Spring 2013), 234.
466:鳥羽耕史 「〈夜の会〉〈世紀の会〉〈 綜合文化協会〉活動年表」, p. 24
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285:桂川寬 『廃墟の前衛 : 回想の戦後美術』東京: 一葉社、 2004
128:The First Generation of Postwar Writers
505:鳥羽耕史 「〈夜の会〉〈世紀の会〉〈 綜合文化協会〉活動年表」, p. 33
484:鳥羽耕史 「〈夜の会〉〈世紀の会〉〈 綜合文化協会〉活動年表」, p. 20
371:鳥羽耕史 「〈夜の会〉〈世紀の会〉〈 綜合文化協会〉活動年表」, p. 18
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496:桂川寬 『廃墟の前衛 : 回想の戦後美術』, p. 21
353:(New York: Routledge, 2021), 25.
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288:瀬木 慎一 『戦後空白期の美術』東京: 思潮社、 1996
209:Atarashii Geijutsu no Tankyū
148:Atarashii Geijutsu no Tankyū
329:夜の会編『新しい藝術の探求』東京：月曜書房、1949
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307:New York: Routledge, 2021.
576:Japanese contemporary art
325:Publications by the group
124:Daiichijisengo-ha Sakka
31:theory, Okamoto was an
35:artist well versed in
529:library.princeton.edu
317:「Art Wiki: 夜の会」『美術手帖』
49:College of Sociology
262:Katsuhiro Yamaguchi
385:成相肇「夜の会」『artscape』
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126:(第一次戦後派作家 "
57:Jikken Kōbō
41:ethnography
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431:2021-10-01
333:References
175:Activities
163:Surrealist
142:Philosophy
132:Sōgō Bunka
37:Surrealism
215:Influence
198:Communism
152:manifesto
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252:members
190:theology
119:Kōbō Abe
77:Kaminoge
45:Bataille
280:Sources
194:fiction
159:Marxist
29:Marxist
558:Dantai
260:, and
248:, and
421:"夜の会"
274:Gutai
234:Tokyo
73:Tokyo
425:美術手帖
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