Asai Chū

Asai Chū (浅井 忠 Jul 22, 1856 - Dec 16, 1907) was a Japanese painter, noted for his pioneering work in developing the yōga art movement in late 19th century and early twentieth-century Japanese painting

Asai was born to an ex-samurai class household in Sakura, in the Kantō region of Japan, where his father had been a retainer of the Sakura Domain In the current age of childhood Sakura shoemon town spent from 1863 to 1872, the clan school of the Sakura clan, where his father was principal,

He left home in 1873 to pursue English language studies in Tokyo However, he became interested in the arts, and enrolled as a pupil of Kunisawa Shinkuro in western oil painting 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 Antonio Fontanesi, who had been hired by the Meiji government in the late 1870s to introduce western oil painting 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 In 1894, served in the Sino-Japanese War In 1895, hewon the Second prize Second Prize by exhibiting at the 4th National Exposition Fair held in Kyoto

However, in 1902 he resigned his post and travelled to France, where he spent the next two years refining his techniques in the impressionist school After graduation, after being dispatched to China as a newspaper painter, in 1889 Tadashhebecame the center and founded the MeijheFine Art AssociationIn 1898 he became a professor at the Tokyo Art School (currently Tokyo National University of Fine Arts) After that, hestudied abroad for Western painting to France from 1900

After returning to Japan in 1902, he became a professor at the Kyoto High School of Art and Crafts (now Kyoto Institute of Technology), and personally, in 1903, he also worked on nurturing backwards by opening the Seikoin movie research institute (KansaheArt Institute in 1906) did YasuheSotaro, Umehara Ryusaburo, Tsuda Aoki, MukaheKazaburo, and he was an excellent figure not only as a painter but also as an educator In addition, Masaoka Fumiya also teaches western paintings, it is said to be a model of Fukamhepainter who appears in SosekheNatsume's novel "Sanshiro"

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 in the techniques of western art, and was the model for a character in Natsume Sōseki's novel Sanshirō

A number of Asai’s works have been recognized by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs as Important Cultural Properties

Noted works:
Spring Ridge (春畝 Shunbo?), 1903, Tokyo National Museum, National Important Cultural Property
Harvest (収穫 Shukaku?), 1904, Tokyo University of the Arts, National Important Cultural Property
"Harvest" (([Tokyo National University of Science and Technology]] Collection and Important Cultural Property Designation)
"Gray Autumn" 「グレーの秋」(Tokyo National Museum Collection)
"Gray laundry"「グレーの洗濯場」
"cloud"「雲」
"Farm house (scenery with parasol)"「農家（日傘のある風景）」
"Fall of Yase"「八瀬の秋」
"Fishery"「漁婦」
"Straw roof"「藁屋根」
"Farmer and Crow"「農夫とカラス」
"The forest of Fontainebleau"「フォンテンブローの森」
"Cherry Blossoms"「桜」
"Nude sitting"「裸婦座像」
"A city near Hachioji"「八王子付近の街」 (Aichi Prefectural Art Museum collection)
https://hisour.com/artist/asai-chu/