was a Japanese painter, noted for his work in combining Japanese legends and religious subjects with the '' yōga'' (Western-style) art movement in late 19th- and early 20th-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

Aoki 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

Kurume is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, the city has an estimated population of 303,579 and a population density of 1,320 persons per km². The total area is 229.96 km². On February 5, 2005, the town of Kitano (from ...

, in northern Kyūshū, Japan, where his father had been a retainer of the

Arima clan The is a Japanese samurai family.Edmund Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Arima," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', pp. 2-3 DF 6-7 of 80/nowiki> retrieved 2013-5- ...

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

of Kurume Domain. Although his family strongly disapproved of his interest in art, he left home in 1899 to pursue his 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, ...

, first with

Koyama Shōtarō Koyama Shōtarō (Japanese:小山正太郎; 15 February 1857, Nagaoka - 7 January 1916, Tokyo) was a Japanese painter; one of the first to work in the yōga style. Life and work His father was an acupuncturist. He completed his primary e ...

, a pupil of 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. From 1900 he became a pupil of

Kuroda Seiki Viscount was a Japanese painter and teacher, noted for bringing Western art theory and practice to a wide Japanese audience. He was among the leaders of the '' yōga'' (or Western-style) movement in late 19th and early 20th-century Japanese p ...

, then an instructor at the Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō (present-day

Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music 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 ...

). In the autumn of 1902, he travelled to Mount Myōgi in

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushim ...

and to

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the n ...

on a sketching excursion. After his return, he displayed some of his completed works at Kuroda's 8th ''Hakuba-kai'' Exhibition, where his use of the techniques of the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jam ...

combined with themes from the ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperi ...

'' resulted in great critical acclaim. Aoki finished his studies in 1904. In August 1905, he relocated to what is now

Chikusei, Ibaraki 260px, Shimodate Haguro Shrine is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 99,987 in 37,635 households and a population density of 487 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 6 ...

, where he had a son by his

common law wife Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civil ...

Tane Fukuda. The son (Rando Fukuda, 1905–1976) would later become a noted ''

shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

'' musician. However, Fukuda returned home to take care of her ill father in August 1907, the relationship came to an end. From October 1908, he abandoned his house and went on an extended painting trip, creating numerous works, but never settling in any location for an extended period of time. In March 1911, he checked into a hospital in

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center ...

suffering from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

, where he died at the age of 28. A number of Aoki's works have been collected by the Ishibashi Museum of Art in his hometown of Kurume, two of which 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 University of the Art

*, 1904, Bridgestone Art Museum *, 1904, Ishibashi Museum of Art, National Important Cultural Property

*, 1905, Ishibashi Museum of Art *, 1906,

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage ( :ja:国立文化財機構), is considered the oldest national museum in Japa ...

*, 1907 (Ishibashi Museum of Art), National Important Cultural Propert

References

* Keene, Donald. ''Dawn to the West''. Columbia University Press; (1998). * Mason, Penelope. ''History of Japanese Art ''. Prentice Hall (2005). * Sadao, Tsuneko. ''Discovering the Arts of Japan: A Historical Overview''. Kodansha International (2003). * Schaarschmidt Richte. ''Japanese Modern Art Painting From 1910 ''. Edition Stemmle. * Weisenfeld, Gennifer. ''MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931''. University of California Press (2001).

External links

Ishibashi Museum of Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aoki, Shigeru 1882 births 1911 deaths People from Kurume 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Japan 20th-century Japanese painters s Shigeru Aoki