Kashima Eiji 鹿島英二 (1874-1950)

Eiji Kashima, also known as Zuibai, was a renowned Japanese dyeing pattern designer. Born in Kagoshima Prefecture in 1874 (Meiji 7), he graduated from the Pattern Design Department of the Tokyo Higher Technical School Teacher Training Institute in 1901. In 1896 (Meiji 29), under the Overseas Industrial Training Program initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, he studied abroad. He went to New York to study pattern design and traveled to the UK in 1910 (Meiji 43) for the Japan-Britain Exposition. Kashima served as a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Tokyo Higher School of Arts and Crafts, dedicated to pattern design education, and also taught at the National Beiping Art Academy. He served as a judge at the Imperial Art Exhibition and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Craft Exhibition, with notable works including many exquisite screens exhibited at the Bunten. His work pursued a free, unpretentious, and often humorously quaint individual expression, forming a unique style, including experiments like wax dyeing on velvet. Besides teaching and artistic creation, Kashima also edited works such as the three-volume Compendium of World Pattern Designs, Home Embroidery Patterns,’Outline Patterns, and Chinese Crafts Illustrated Handbook: Dyeing and Weaving Crafts Commentary, and wrote books such as Kimono Trends and Textiles and articles like “Chinese National Character and Its Dyeing and Weaving.” Eiji Kashima passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage on May 1, 1950, in his home in Nakano, Tokyo, at the age of 77.

Some Japanese sources date Kashima’s teaching at the National Beijing Art Academy to 1945. However, according to the article by Peng Fei, Kashima lectured at the school in the late 1920s. Renowned pattern designer Lei Guiyuan also recalled Kashima serving as a visiting professor at the school since the 1920s. When the school in Beiping resumed classes in 1939, the government required the hiring of Japanese teachers, and Eiji Kashima was then appointed in the pattern design department. According to Wang Shizhi, the principal, ‘They [the Japanese teachers] were sympathetic to the Chinese people, and the students welcomed them.’ (Liu Xilin, ‘Two Historical Events of the Beijing Art Specialist School’)

Kashima and Li Xuying likely served as teacher and student, and later as colleagues.

鹿島英二，号瑞白，是日本著名的染色图案家。 他出生于明治7年（1874年）的鹿儿岛县，1901年毕业于东京高等技术学校教师培训所图案科。1896年（明治29年），在农商务省启动的海外实业实习生制度下出国留学。他曾前往纽约学习图案设计，并在明治43年（1910年）赴英国参加日英博览会。鹿岛曾在东京美术学校和东京高等工艺学校担任教授，致力于图案设计教育，并且还担任过中华民国立北京艺术专科学校的教授。他在帝文展和商工省工艺展览会等活动中担任评审员，其代表作品包括在文展上展出的许多精美的屏风。他的作品追求自由、朴实且时有滑稽的个性化表现，形成了独特的艺术风格，包括在天鹅绒上尝试蜡染等。教学与艺术创作之余，鹿岛还编辑了《世界纹样图案集成》三卷，《家庭刺绣图案》，《轮廓图案》，《中国工艺图鉴》之《染织工编解说》等著作，并撰写了《和服的流行与织物》及“中国国民性及其染织”等书文。鹿島英二因脑出血于1950年5月1日在东京中野的家中去世，享年77岁。

一些日文资料将鹿島英二在北平艺专任教的年代定在1945年，不过按照之前介绍过的彭飞老师文章，鹿島在20年代末就到艺专进行短期讲学。著名图案家雷奎元的回忆中也记录了鹿岛20年代起就担任艺专客座教授的事。1939年北平的艺专复课时，当时的政府要求学校必须请日本教师。那时候来到艺专图案专业的就是鹿岛英二。根据校长王石之的回忆，“【鹿岛等】他们同情中国人，学生也欢迎。”（“北平艺专史事二则，” 刘曦林）

从时间上推算，鹿島英二和李旭英应当先后做过师生和同事。