Research Corpus and the Hierarchy of Sources

1Research Corpus

The core visual corpus of this book consists of the byunshiji.org “100 Works,” works not included there provided by the author, and plates verifiable in Art and Fūdo, exhibition catalogues and collections of works. The “100 Works,” however, is not a catalogue raisonné and cannot be assumed to represent the artist’s whole output statistically.

Expressions such as “often,” “recurs” and “increasingly in the late work” therefore mean tendencies within the group of works currently verifiable. To use them as statements of frequency across the whole output, a separate complete list and quantitative review are needed.

2Four Levels of Evidence

Level A is directly verifiable primary material such as original works, the artist’s writings and contemporary exhibition material. Level B is records with stated sources, such as oral history, newspapers, catalogues and institutional records. Level C is family testimony, later recollections and secondary criticism. Level D is this book’s formal analysis and comparative theory.

The levels are not a ranking of value but a device for distinguishing kinds of claim. A work’s date must be settled from Level A and B material, while a work’s emotional meaning or symbolism is marked as Level D interpretation. Where sources conflict, neither is arbitrarily erased; the conflict itself is recorded.

3Counter-Examples and Testing the Hypothesis

Fūdo modernism must not become a concept that selects works to confirm a conclusion. Cases that differ from this book’s central tendencies—bright many-coloured canvases, works with large figures, works with little empty space, works with crows appearing in flocks—must be examined too.

The existence of counter-examples is not a reason to discard the hypothesis but material for setting its scope. On this principle, the table at the head of each of the nine arguments lists actual works that do not fit the proposition as counter-examples: for instance, the colour of Wind (1991) and The Departing Boat (1979), the upright body of The Beggar (1979), the many forms and movements of Boisterous Dance (1997), the waiting without a bent body in The Jetty (1979), the near scene of labour in Plowing (1979), the gestures not arising from work in Hope, Will, Peace, and Love (1994), and the dense surface of Apparition (2003). The corpus of counter-examples will be widened as soon as a list of the complete works is secured.