Kaoru Yamaguchi1907~1968 山口薫

Yamaguchi Kaoru was a Japanese yoga painter and a former professor at Tokyo University of the Arts, born on August 13, 1907 in the village of Minowa (now part of Takasaki) in Gunma Prefecture as the youngest of eleven children. He studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, was first selected for the Teiten exhibition at the age of 19, and after graduation spent about three years studying in Paris. After returning to Japan in 1933, he set up a studio in Kamikitazawa, Setagaya, and together with Hasegawa Saburo, Murai Masanari, and Yabashi Rokuro formed the “New Era Yoga Exhibition” group, which developed in 1937 into the Jiyu Bijutsuka Kyokai. In 1950 he left this association to co-found the Modern Art Association, and became regarded as a pioneer of Japanese modern art for his lyrical works fusing abstraction and figuration. He also taught at Tokyo University of the Arts from 1953, until his death on May 19, 1968 at the age of 60.