was a Japanese painter and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, t ...

known for his depiction of the female form. Born in

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

Prefecture Japan, he graduated from middle school at

Aoyama Gakuin University is a private Christian university in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Originally established in 1874 by missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was reconfigured in its current form in 1949 as part of Aoyama Gakuin. Aoyama Gakuin University ...

and displayed his first one-man show at Hibiya Art Museum at the age of 18. He later participated in the Futurist movement while studying in

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 ...

. In 1928, he returned to Japan and was awarded the 1st Showa Western Art Promotion Award. In 1957, Togo received the Japan Art Academy Award, and in 1961 became a member of the Japan Art Academy. In 1969, was declared an Officier d'

ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system ...

by the French government and in 1976 was decorated with the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

, Second Class, with Rays. Togo died in 1978 in

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,0 ...

at the age of 80. Later that year, he was posthumously named a

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honor which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

of the fourth court rank by the

Japanese government The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary stat ...

. His works can be seen at the Seiji Togo Memorial SOMPO Japan Museum of art in Tokyo, where more than 200 of his most prominent works are kept.

References

Museum's page on Togo

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Togo, Seiji 1897 births 1978 deaths Aoyama Gakuin University alumni People from Kagoshima Japanese racehorse owners and breeders Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 20th-century Japanese painters