ASAI Chu

Native placeEdo (Tokyo)
Birth1856
Dead placeKyoto
Died1907

Biography

He was born in Kobikicho, Edo, as the son of a retainer of the Sakura Domain. He first studied bird and flower painting under a literati painter. After studying English and Chinese learning, he entered the Western-style painting academy Shogido in 1876, and in the same year enrolled in the newly established Kobu Bijutsu Gakko (Technical Art School), where he studied under Fontanesi. Following Fontanesi's departure from Japan, dissatisfied with his successor, Asai left the school and formed the Juichiji-kai to continue his studies in Western-style painting. During this period, Asai developed the poetic naturalism he had learned from Fontanesi. He participated in the founding of the Meiji Art Society (Meiji Bijutsu-kai) in 1889, and the works he exhibited at their inaugural exhibition displayed his own unique realism. In 1900, he was ordered by the government to study Western painting in France for two years, producing numerous works in Versailles and Grez. His watercolors from this period show an inclination toward Impressionism. After returning to Japan, he moved to Kyoto to teach at the Kyoto Industrial Arts School, and in 1903, he established the Shogoin Painting Research Institute (known as the Kansai Art Institute after 1906), where he dedicated himself to guiding the younger generation. Asai, who studied under Fontanesi at the Kobu Bijutsu Gakko (Technical Art School), best inherited his master's view of nature, carefully nurturing that poetic naturalism even during the bleak era of Western-style painting in Japan. Fontanesi, influenced by the Barbizon school, was a leading Italian painter of his time, and his artistic skill and character earned the deep respect of his students.

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