Wirgman, Charles

Japanese: ワーグマン - Ｗｉｒｇｍａｎ，Ｃｈａｒｌｅｓ

Year of death: February 8, 1891
Born: August 31, 1832
A British journalist and artist who came to Japan at the end of the Edo period. Born in London. Following the Arrow Incident in 1856, he traveled to China in 1857 as a correspondent for the Illustrated London News. After encountering the Canton Uprising, he traveled to Hong Kong and Manila, and in 1860 served in the military in Beijing before returning to Japan. The following year, he traveled to China again and accompanied Alcock, the British Consul General in Japan, to Japan. On July 4, he arrived at Tozenji Temple in Shinagawa, which was the temporary residence of the British Embassy, and that same night witnessed an attack by Mito roshi (masterless samurai), leaving behind a watercolor sketch entitled "A Picture of the Intrusion of the Roshi at Tozenji Temple." He lived in Yokohama, and in 1862 he founded Japan Punch, a comic magazine aimed at foreigners in the settlement, and drew satirical illustrations. The magazine continued to be published until 1887. In 1865, Goseda Yoshimatsu became his apprentice and learned Western painting techniques, followed by Takahashi Yuichi the following year, and later Yamamoto Hosui and Tamura Soryu, among others, who received his instruction. As one of the few instructors of practical techniques, he had a huge influence on students of Western painting who were still fumbling around in the late Edo and early Meiji periods. After the Meiji Restoration, he traveled to various places, including Shinshu and Joshu, and produced many watercolors and oil paintings of Japanese scenery with an emotive brushstroke. Around 1886, he married a Japanese woman, Ozawa Kane, and later had a child with her. In 1888, he returned to England and held an exhibition in London with his brother, the painter Blake Wirgman. His oil paintings of Japanese landscapes, "Shukuba" and "Kaido" (owned by Kanagawa Prefectural Museum), are thought to be works exhibited at this time. He returned to Japan in the same year, but he soon fell ill and died in Yokohama, where he was buried in the foreign cemetery in Yokohama. There is also a family gravestone erected by Ichiro Ichiro at Zengyoji Temple in Naka Ward, the same city.

(Hideo Miwa)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治24.2.8(1891)
生年：1832.8.31
幕末に来日したイギリスの新聞記者,画家。ロンドン生まれ。1856年のアロー号事件を機に,『イラストレイテッド・ロンドン・ニューズ』の特派員として57年中国へ渡る。広東動乱に遭遇後,香港,マニラをまわり,60年には北京で従軍し帰国した。翌年再び中国へ渡り,英国駐日総領事オールコックに従って来日。7月4日イギリス公使館の仮寓となっていた品川東禅寺に到着し,同夜水戸浪士の襲撃事件に遭遇,このとき水彩スケッチ「東禅寺浪士乱入の図」を残した。横浜に居住し,文久2(1862)年居留地外国人向けの漫画誌『ジャパン・パンチ』を創刊,風刺挿絵を描いた。同誌は明治20(1887)年まで刊行を続けた。また,慶応1(1865)年に五姓田義松が入門し洋画法を学んだのをはじめ,翌年には高橋由一が入門,その後山本芳翠,田村宗立らがその指導を受けるなど,数少ない実技指導者のひとりとして,幕末から明治初年の手さぐり状態の西洋画学習者に与えた影響はきわめて大きかった。維新後は,信州や上州など各地を旅行し,日本の風物を情趣のある筆致で水彩や油彩で多く描いた。9年ころ,日本人小沢カネと結婚,のち1子をもうけた。明治21年イギリスへ帰国し,ロンドンで弟の画家ブレイク・ワーグマンと展覧会を開催した。日本の景観を描いた油彩画「宿場」,「街道」(神奈川県立博物館蔵)はこのときの出品作と考えられる。同年中に日本へ戻ったが,やがて発病し横浜で没し,横浜市の外人墓地に葬られた。同市中区の善行寺にも,一子一郎が建立した同家の墓碑がある。

(三輪英夫)

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