Tsuji Shindo began teaching at Kyoto Municipal School of Art in September 1949 and he then became an assistant professor in the sculpture department when Kyoto City University of Arts was established the following April. Sculpture was taught in a traditional way at the time, with students initially sketching human models. However, Tsuji shifted tack and began teaching a ‘no-model method’ that involved ‘sculpting from an image in the head, without using models.’ The sculptor Horiuchi Masakazu (1911–2001) also began lecturing at Kyoto City University of Arts that year, with the two men then developing and practicing a teaching methodology that commenced with the combination of geometric forms.

This work is perhaps an early-stage example of Tsuji’s attempts to create abstract images. From before the war, he worked equally with plaster and wood, but in 1951, he submitted Standing Figure to the 36th Japan Art Institute Exhibition, while he also produced a ceramic sculpture Crying Child and a cement sculpture Nude (National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) in the same year. The work here was criticized at the time for its low level of abstraction. The head of this work is only around 1/10th the size of the body and it would be hard to describe it as an arrangement concretely modelled on the human form. Tsuji created other statues with heads proportionally smaller than bodies, including 1951’s Nude, a white cement work submitted to the 1st Open-Air Sculpture Exhibition, and 1952’s plaster Seated Figure (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art). However, the white cement Nude and the plaster Seated Figure have comparatively larger lower bodies. From around 1951, Tsuji tried to enhance the abstractness of his works by casting cement or by directly attaching plaster, for instance.

Tsuji also entered the world of ceramic sculpture around this time as he sought to introduce an element of randomness by sculpting with potter’s clay and then firing in a kiln. So, did he create the perfunctorily-abstract Standing Figure during the initial phase of his move to Kyoto? Tsuji left behind around five sketchbooks which were presumably drawn between 1937 and 1941, in which there was a long-haired naked woman sketched by pencil and ink. With wood carving, shapes are formed by whittling the wood down in a process of subtraction. As such, it is hard to produce a carving based on a pre-existing sketch, because any mistakes cannot be undone. This difficulty prompted Tsuji to begin his pursuit of the abstract using cement and plaster. In other words, his new forms began from a process of addition rather than subtraction. Furthermore, Tsuji became acquainted with Yagi Kazuo (1918–1979) after the war and in 1953 he then completed the ceramic sculpture Hanshan and Shide as a purely abstract work. This shift from sketches to pure abstraction can be seen in the collection of ceramic sculptures that Tsuji unveiled at his solo show at Tokyo Maruzen in 1956. Tsuji stopped producing ceramic sculptures for a time and began working with iron around 1966. This move came after the climbing kilns in Kyoto city were demolished due to enforcement of the anti-pollution ordinance and were replaced with electric and gas kilns.

Tsuji Shindo (sculptor; 1910–1981)
Sculptor from Tottori Prefecture. Initially known for the woodcarving, Tsuji created pieces by incorporating sculptural elements into ceramics known as his unique “Tocho” style later. He created a body of substantial works that embodies modern forms and maintained a deep understanding of Zen Buddhist philosophy.