Kaii Higashiyama1908~1999 東山魁夷

Higashiyama Kaii (real name Shinkichi) was one of the most representative Nihonga painters of the Showa era and was called a “national painter” for his landscapes. Born in Yokohama in 1908, he studied Japanese-style painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts under Yuki Somei and went to Germany to study in 1933. After the war, his 1947 work “Zansho” (Afterglow) won a special prize at the Nitten exhibition, and his 1950 painting “Michi” (The Road) opened new ground with its extreme simplification of composition. He traveled extensively in Northern Europe, Germany, and China for his work, and created monumental wall paintings for the Mieido of Toshodai-ji including “Yamagumo,” “Tosei,” and “Kozan Gyoun”; he received the Order of Culture in 1969 and died on 6 May 1999 at the age of 90.