Okumura Togyu

Okumura Togyū ( Japanese 奥 村 土 牛 , real first name Gizō ( 義 三 ); born February 18, 1889 in Tokyo ; died September 25, 1990 ) was a Japanese painter in the Nihonga style of the Taishō and Shōwa periods .

life and work

From 1905 Okumura studied under Kajita Hanko ( 梶 田 判 古 ; 1870-1917), who was also the teacher of Kobayashi Kokei and Maeda Seison . After Kajita's death in 1917, he continued his education under Kobayashi.

Okumura's work received regular recognition at the exhibitions of the "Central Art Exhibition" ( 中央 美術展 , Chūō bijutsuten ). He was admitted to the Nihon Bijutsuin for further studies in 1923 and was also a member of a study group under Hayami Gyoshū . The first work to win a prize at the Bijutsuin exhibition in 1927 was the picture “Cucumber Field ” ( 胡瓜 畑 , Kyūri-batake). He continued to be active at the Bijutsuin exhibitions, was accepted as an associate member in 1929 and a full member in 1932. At the first exhibition of the state Teiten exhibition in 1926, he showed the picture "Ein Duck" ( 鴨 , Kamo ) and won a higher price with it, which established a broader recognition.

Okumura also worked as a teacher for a long time. First he was in 1935 head of the department for Nihonga at the Teikoku bijutsu gakkō , today's Musashino Art School . Then in 1944 he moved to Nihon bijtsutsu gakkō , the forerunner of the Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku and finally in 1953 to the Tama School of Art . Most recently he was chairman of Nihon Bijutsuin.

Okumura has received various awards, in 1947 he became a member of the Japanese Academy of Arts , in 1962 he was honored as a person with special cultural merits and awarded the Order of Culture by the emperor . - In 1980 he became an honorary citizen ( 名誉 都 民 , Meiyo tomin ) of the city of Tokyo.

Okumura was based on Kajita's realistic painting style, but later studied - although he was a Nihonga painter - extensively Cézanne and other European painters. He mainly painted birds, animals and landscapes, and he endeavored to enrich his painting style throughout his life. He is one of the most important Japanese painters of the 20th century. In Nagano Prefecture there is the "Okumura Togyū Memorial Museum" ( 奥 村 土 牛 記念 美術館 , Okumura Togyū kinen bijutsukan ).

His representative works include “A Castle” ( 城 , Shiro; 1955) and “ Naruto ” ( 鳴 門 ), both in the Yamatane Art Museum . In 1997, the Japanese Post issued an 80 yen postage stamp with an image of Okamura titled "Daigo" ( 醍醐 ). Depicted is a blossoming cherry tree on the temple grounds of Daigo-ji .

Remarks

1. ↑ Teiten (帝 展) is the abbreviation for Teikoku bijutsu tenrankai ( 帝国 美術展 覧 会 ), the annual state art exhibition in the 1930s.

Web links (images)

• Okumura: "Naruto" in the Yamatane Museum

literature

• National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (Ed.): Okumura Togyū . In: Kindai Nihon no bijutsu , Tokyo, 1984.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Okumura Togyū . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art . Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Okumura Togyū . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists . Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Okumura is the family name, Togyū the first name.