Matsumoto Shunsuke, was born in Shibuya, Tokyo but spent his childhood years in Northern Honshu, and lived in Hanamaki and Morioka city before moving to Tokyo at the age of 17. At this time, Tokyo was a new city having emerged from the ravages of the 1923 earthquake. Matsumoto, with his interest in Western painting and in particular in modernism, was well placed to paint this new city. In one of his early pictures called Machi (town), Matsumoto painted a montage with a blue background against which there are details such as the girl in the red dress, a man polishing shoes, a man with a soft hat, a clock tower and a café. It is like a dream like world. Later he painted New York featuring some scenes from downtown as well as the White House. In other paintings from this period, there are dark, sombre, secluded places devoid of people which raises the question of why he painted Tokyo like this? There is a feeling of isolation and loneliness in many of his paintings. The scenes are often of isolated spots such as bridges, garbage disposal centres, public toilets and, in one case, some sewage outlet pipes into the Kanda River. Matsumoto also liked to paint the St Nikolai Cathedral near Ochanomizu. One picture was painted from such an angle that it puzzled critics for many years. The sketch books showed, however, that he had merged two views into one.
Matsumoto caught the Yamanote line train to get to many parts of the city he painted on canvas drawing lots of sketches and taking lots of photographs. He painted many scenes near various stations such as Ochanomizu, Suidobashi, Tokyo and Shinjuku. Near Tokyo station he painted the Yaesu bridge and in the background a series of chimneys that capture a sense of the rhythm of the city. He also painted a pedestrian bridge near Yokohama station. The post-war version of the same bridge shows the destruction of the surrounding area and a jeep. It has been suggested that Matsumoto's attraction to bridges is based on the idea that bridges connect areas that are otherwise separated. Made from steel and concrete, they allow people to move freely from one side to another. With the nation embarking on the road to war during the 1930s, Matsumoto painted a monolithic vision of himself as an artist that suggests that he would not be so easily subsumed into the self-sacrifice required for the war effort. Together with his wife Teiko he started a new drawing and essay magazine called Zakkicho. He published an essay on the subject of humanism. His wife also featured in his 'Portrait of the Artist'. Matsumoto Shunsuke died in 1948 at the age of 36. The parts of Tokyo that he painted include:
- Takebashi bridge
- Rooftops near Yoyogi Station, east exit
- White buildings near the Suidobashi station
- Miyoshoji river, near where Matsumoto lived
- Tokyo station, Yaesubashi
- Hijiribashi, Ochanomizu station
- Nikolai Cathedral, Kanda
- Shinjuku station, south exit stairway and public toilet
- Yokohama station, Tsukimibashi (pedestrian bridge) and public toilet
- Showadori bridge, Shinbashi
As a modernist, Matsumoto follows in the footsteps of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch whose famous painting 'The Scream' is also set on a bridge. Where the man in Munch's painting is the centre of attention, Matsumoto has turned to the surrounding city itself. The atmosphere he creates is one of isolation and loneliness. The line work he uses in Y shi no hashi (Bridge in Yokohama) allows him to suggest structures in the background whilst the fine lines add a sense nuanced detail in the foreground. These are contrasted with the heavy lines that he uses for the pedestrian bridge which give it a surreal, playful presence like some gym equipment. An example of his fine line work can be seen in the 1948 work semi (cicada) which looks like something that Brassai, and his ilk with their predilection for graffiti might have been drawn towards.
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