Gyokudo Kawai1873~1957 川合玉堂

Kawai Gyokudo was a Japanese-style painter born in 1873 in Aichi Prefecture (in present-day Ichinomiya City); his given name was Yoshisaburo. He studied under Mochizuki Gyokusen and Kono Bairei in Kyoto, and after moving to Tokyo trained with Hashimoto Gaho, fusing the Shijo and Kano schools to establish his own distinctive style. He became a professor of Japanese painting at the Tokyo Fine Arts School in 1915 and was appointed an Imperial Household Artist (Teishitsu Gigeiin) in 1917, becoming a central figure in the Japanese art world. Renowned for evocative depictions of Japan’s four seasons and rural landscapes, his 1916 work “Spring Departing” (Yuku Haru) is designated an Important Cultural Property. He was awarded the Order of Culture in 1940 and died in 1957 at the age of 83.