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- Hibari Misora. One of the most famous and influential artists in the kayokyoku scene. She had a powerful voice and sang in a variety of genres, including pop, enka, and jazz.
- Hachiro Kasuga. Hachiro Kasuga was another popular kayokyoku singer known for his deep, rich voice and his renditions of traditional Japanese songs. His hit songs include "Kojo no Tsuki," "Sakura Sakura," and "Furusato Yubin."
- Pink Lady. The female duo consisted of Mie and Kei, who were one of the most successful musical acts of the late 1970s. Their energetic dance routines and catchy pop songs made them household names in Japan.
- Chage and Aska. A pop duo formed in the late 1970s, they were known for their heartfelt ballads and upbeat pop songs. Their hit songs include "Say Yes," "Meguriai," and "On Your Mark."
Find a list of greatest artists and collections associated with Shōwa period (1926–1989) at Wikiart.org – the best visual art database.
Jan 27, 2020 · Japan’s Shōwa era – a period corresponding to the 63-year reign of Japanese Emperor Hirohito – began in the shadow of a cataclysm. Hirohito became Japan’s 124th emperor in 1926, three years after a massive earthquake levelled Tokyo.
- Overview
- Additional resources
By Dr. Sonia Coman
Shōwa period (1926-1989)
The years leading to Japan’s involvement in World War II saw the rise of militarism, ultra-nationalism, and increasing imperialistic ambitions, fueled in part by Japan’s emulation of western colonialism. In the 1920s and 30s, Japanese poets, photographers, and painters who had studied abroad developed, in Japan, styles aligned with contemporaneous global art movements, combining elements of surrealism, absurdist Dada, and futurism. For example, the paintings of Fukuzawa Ichirō combined surrealist imagery with political commentary; Hirai Terushichi made use of color painting and photomontage to create photographic prints that blurred the boundary between reality and imagination.
Such artists were silenced in 1941 by the Japanese “thought police” that aimed to control any and all ideologies that seemed to pose a threat to the ideals and agenda of the Nazi-allied Empire of Japan. War-time painting depicting military men and battles came to be heavily criticized after the war for their political charge, but recent scholarship by Ikeda Asato suggests that seemingly apolitical paintings of the pre-war period, which romanticized subjects of “authentic” Japanese culture such as Mount Fuji or bijin (“beautiful women”), can also be understood as having supported the militaristic state ideology of the time.
Postwar Japan was a period of unprecedented change. From the end of the war in 1945 to 1952, Japan was occupied by the victorious Allied forces, led by American General Douglas MacArthur. From 1952 to the death of the Shōwa emperor (Hirohito) in 1989, Japan witnessed a successful U.S.-influenced economic redevelopment. In the cultural sphere, as early as 1954, the newly established Gutai art association promoted “concrete” or “embodied” artistic expressions, pushing abstraction to its limits and foreshadowing the performance and conceptual art of the 1960s and 70s.
In those later decades, the exploration of materiality continued to preoccupy artists of the so-called mono-ha (literally “school of things”), including the Korean Lee Ufan. Mono-ha artists created works that tested the tension between natural and manmade materials and between their chosen materials and the environment in which they were placed. Mono-ha artists may have been influenced by the sociopolitical climate of distrust, protest, and counterculture that dominated the 60s and 70s. Referring to one of his most influential works, Phase: Mother Earth, consisting of a deep and wide hole in the ground and an equally sized cylinder of the excavated earth, the Mono-ha artist Sekine Nobuo affirmed:
For information on other periods in the arts of Japan, see the longer introductory essays here:
A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Jomon to Heian periods
A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Kamakura to Azuchi-Momoyama periods
A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Edo period
A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Meiji to Reiwa periods
JAANUS, an online dictionary of terms of Japanese arts and architecture
Dec 16, 2022 · The Showa era gave birth to many iconic artists and bands. Here are a few that left a significant impact on the music scene: Hibari Misora : One of the most famous and influential artists in...
Aug 31, 2017 · Famous Art Pieces from the Showa Era. The Showa period had both prewar and postwar phases. If you look at the art industry before the second world war erupted, you’ll notice that artists Umehara Ryzaburo and Yasui Sotaro are what dominantly make up most of Japan’s artwork.
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The Shōwa era (昭和時代, Shōwa jidai, [ɕoːwadʑidai] ⓘ) is an historical period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (commonly known in English as Emperor Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989. [ 1 ] It was preceded by the Taishō era and succeeded by the Heisei era.
