was a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
painter, noted for his pioneering work in developing the ''
yōga
is a style of artistic painting in Japan, typically of Japanese subjects, themes, or landscapes, but using Western (European) artistic conventions, techniques, and materials. The term was coined in the Meiji period (1868–1912) to distingu ...
'' (Western-style) art movement in late 19th century and early twentieth-century
Japanese painting
is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese art, Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis a ...
.
Biography
Asai was born to an ex-
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retai ...
class household in
Sakura
A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...
, in the
Kantō region of Japan, where his father had been a retainer of the
Sakura Domain
was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Shimōsa Province (modern-day Chiba Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Sakura Castle in what is now the city of Sakura, Chiba. It was ruled for most of its hi ...
. He attended the domain school, where his father was principal, and left home in 1873 to pursue
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...
studies in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. However, he became interested in the arts, and enrolled as a pupil of Kunisawa Shinkuro in western
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...
classes. In 1876, he enrolled as one of the first students in the ''Kobubijutsu Gakkō'' (the Technical Fine Arts School), where he was able to study under the Italian
foreign advisor
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* United S ...
Antonio Fontanesi
Antonio Fontanesi (23 February 1818 – 17 April 1882) was an Italian painter who lived in Meiji period Japan between 1876 and 1878. He introduced European oil painting techniques to Japan, and exerted a significant role in the development of m ...
, who had been hired by the
Meiji government
The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan.
Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...
in the late 1870s to introduce western
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...
to Japan.
In 1889, he established the ''Meiji Bijutsukai'' (Meiji Art Society), the first group of Western-style painters in Japan, and in 1898, he became a professor of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (present day
Tokyo University of the Arts
or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, sc ...
. However, in 1900 he resigned his post and travelled to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
, where he spent the next two years refining his techniques in the
impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...
school.
On his return to Japan in 1902, Asai obtained a position as professor at the ''Kyoto Kōtō Kōgei Gakkō'' (present-day Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts of the
Kyoto Institute of Technology), and founded the ''Kansai Bijutsu-in'' (the Kansai Arts Institute).
Asai taught numerous students who later became famous in the Japanese art world, including
Sōtarō Yasui and
Ryuzaburo Umehara. He also tutored the noted poet
Masaoka Shiki
, pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡 升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...
in the techniques of western art, and was the model for a character in
Natsume Sōseki
, born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels '' Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', '' I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work ''Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and write ...
's novel ''Sanshirō''.
A number of Asai’s works have been recognized by the Japanese government's
Agency for Cultural Affairs
The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture.
The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion.
Overview
The ...
as
Important Cultural Properties.
Noted works
*, 1903, Tokyo National Museum, National Important Cultural Property
*, 1904, Tokyo University of the Arts, National Important Cultural Property.
Gallery
Image:Asai chu morning.jpg, ''Morning Sun''
Image:Asai Chu - Woman Sewing - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Sewing Woman''
Image:Asai_chu_kotaba.jpg, ''The Village Kotaba''
Image:Asai_chu_pulling.jpg, ''Pulling Boat''
File:Asai chu vegetable.jpg, ''Spring Ridge''
References
* Keene, Donald. ''Dawn to the West''. Columbia University Press; (1998).
* Mason, Penelope. ''History of Japanese Art ''. Prentice Hall (2005).
* Miyoshi, Masao. ''Postmodernism and Japan''. Duke University Press (1986)
* Sadao, Tsuneko. ''Discovering the Arts of Japan: A Historical Overview''. Kodansha International (2003).
* Schaarschmidt Richte. ''Japanese Modern Art Painting From 1910 ''. Edition Stemmle.
* Shiki, Masaoka. ''Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works''. Cheng & Tsui (2002).
* Weisenfeld, Gennifer. ''MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905–1931''. University of California Press (2001).
External links
National Diet Library biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asai, Chu
1856 births
1907 deaths
20th-century Japanese painters
Japanese educators
People from Sakura, Chiba
People of Meiji-period Japan
Yōga painters
Artists from Tokyo Metropolis