В пучине бренного мира. Японское искусство и его коллекционер Сергей Китаев

Sergei Nikolaevich Kitaev was born June 10 (Gregorian calendar: 22), 1864, in the village of Klishino on the Oka River in Ryazan province (now a part of Moscow province), where the Kitaevs had their family estate. He belonged to a well-to-do family bearing the rank of hereditary honorable citizens[209]. Most probably his family made its money from the local sailcloth factory, which had provided sails for the navy since the time of Peter the Great – hence the naval connection of the future collector and his brothers. From the age of fourteen, Kitaev was educated at the Naval School (later renamed Naval Corps) in Saint Petersburg. He graduated in 1884 salutatorian (his name was incised and gilded on the marble Board of Honor). He served as an officer in Saint Petersburg and on the ships of the Pacific fleet until 1905 and, afterward, in Petersburg until 1912. His highest rank in service was Colonel of the Admiralty (“colonel” because in his last years he served on shore), and when he was discharged due to ill-health, he was promoted to the rank of Major General of the Admiralty (a uniquely Russian title). One very blurred photograph of Kitaev from a Japanese newspaper of 1918 is known, as well as a description from a Russian secret police report of 1904: “medium height, a black French-style beard, mustache pointed up, wears a black-rimmed pincenez[210].”

Kitaev exhibited at the Imperial Academy of Arts and in the Society of Watercolor Artists. His elder brother, Vasily Kitaev (1849–1894), was also in the navy and an artist; another brother, Alexander (c. 1852–?), was a naval officer who spent time in Nagasaki and published essays about his Far Eastern travels[211]. Yet another brother, Vladimir (1855–1920), ended his life as an émigré in Japan, and died in Nagasaki.

Original and Growing Collection

There are two long letters written by Kitaev to the previously mentioned Pavel Pavlinov in which he describes his collection and shares his views on Japanese art. These letters, given by Pavlinov to the Pushkin in 1959, and a list (the “Brief List”) in Kitaev’s hand of his collection found in the boxes with his prints, yield an engaging portrait of the collector and outline of his original collection. The letters to Pavlinov were written on the 15th (28) and the 20th of August (2 September), 1916, in anticipation of Kitaev’s selling the collection to the Russian state. While in a generally good state of preservation, the letters are marred with comments and underlinings in ballpoint ink and pencil by an overzealous researcher, presumably Voronova[212].

Kitaev did not limit himself to woodblock prints. In his Brief List he enumerates the following groups: hanging scrolls – 270; screens (including one purportedly by Ogata Kо̄rin [1658–1716] – 4; handscrolls – 12 (including one purportedly by Katsushika Hokusai [1760–1849]); watercolors – 650 large and 570 small; ink sketches – 1900[213]. Besides these, there was a group of thirteen hundred photographs of Japanese life (street scenes, festivals, customs and the like), thematically grouped in albums, and three hundred negatives[214]. There were hand-colored glass slides for a magic lantern taken, for the most part, from prints on historical and mythological subjects. There were hundreds of books and albums, and finally, thousands of prints. Kitaev writes:

These are the cities where I was buying: Tokyo, Kyoto, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, Shimonoseki, Nagazaki, Hakodate, Nikko, Nagoya, Tsuruga, Kagoshima. In villages: Otsu, Mianoshta [Miyanoshita at Hakone], Inasa, Atami. There were other places, but their names I do not remember. My agents (ojiji san – “old men”) canvassed the length and breadth of J[apan] for several years[215].

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Letter from Sergei Kitaev to Pavel Pavlinov