Drucker and Japanese Paintings
Peter Drucker (1909-2005), a prominent professor on business, wrote Toward the Next Economics and Other Essays in 1981. In the book there is a chapter concerning Japanese pictures: Chapter 12: A View of Japan Through Japanese Art.
A Japanese blogger introduced the contents:
Drucker found that Japanese art is based on individualism though Japanese would sacrifice expression of their individual personality to achieve and maintain a group intention in their social life. Accordingly there are various schools in the world of Japanese pictures.
Drucker thought that Japanese pictures are the best in the genre of animal paintings. In Europe and America, not many painters and artists draw or paint a picture of an animal. However, he found that most of Japanese painters make drawings of animals. Especially, the notable American business professor paid attention to pictures of birds Japanese painters have made. Those birds painted by Japanese artists symbolize a characteristic of Japanese people: expression of joy without doubt and irony.
Drucker also realized that Japanese artists have to live in society with full of restrictions like other Japanese citizens. Society would protect them but it binds them to various complicated rules and custom. Nonetheless Japanese artists have to compete based on individual talent and personality in their fields. Japanese painters in the 18th century were very individualistic but most of them belonged to any schools. If they had been completely independent, they were regraded as real odd persons.
Drucker discovered that one Japanese painter paints an ornamental picture in one time but a simple picture in other time. But it is not a matter of untrustworthy contradiction but of acceptable bipolarity in Japan. Tension in this bipolarity without confrontation is a rare feature that is only observed in the Japanese art.
Drucker cited an example of Japanese high priest in the 18th century Hakuin (1686-1769). Monk Hakuin was good at painting an image of Bodhidharma. Somebody asked him how long it took for Hakuin to draw one Bodhidharma. He answered, "10 minutes and 80 years." A European artist would say that it took 80 years for him to master skills. But a Japanese artist would mean that it took 80 years for him to get through necessary spiritual training.
Anyway Peter Drucker was not an ordinary American. He was one of European Judaists who could narrowly escape the evil of Nazis and Hitler before WWII.
Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education, and he invented the concept known as management by objectives.
Peter Drucker was of Jewish descent on both sides of his family,[6] but his parents converted to Christianity and lived in what he referred to as a "liberal" Lutheran Protestant household in Austria-Hungary.[7] His mother Caroline Bondi had studied medicine and his father Adolf Drucker was a lawyer and high-level civil servant.[8] Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now part of the 19th district of Vienna-Döbling).[9] He grew up in a home where intellectuals, high government officials, and scientists would meet to discuss new ideas.
In 1933, Drucker left Germany for England.[13] In London, he worked for an insurance company, then as the chief economist at a private bank.[14] He also reconnected with Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt, and they married in 1934.[15] The couple permanently relocated to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a freelance writer and business consultant.As he was essentially a European intellect, he could appreciate quality of traditional Japanese paintings and drawings so plainly, though Japanese animations and manga works get highly popular in the world today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker
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