Katsuzo Satomi1895~1981 里見勝蔵

Katsuzo Satomi (1895-1981) was a Japanese Western-style (oil) painter born in the Shijo district of Kyoto and a member of the Kokuga-kai. After studying drawing under Shinichi Suzukawa, he entered the Western painting department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, studying under Takeji Fujishima and Seiki Kuroda, and graduated in 1919. He went to France in 1921 and studied under Maurice de Vlaminck, becoming deeply influenced by Fauvism and being called the “flag-bearer of Fauvism” in Japan. Known for dynamic brushwork and bold use of bright primary colors, he was instrumental in founding the 1930 Association and the Independent Art Association alongside artists such as Yuzo Saeki, exerting a major influence on the Japanese Western-painting scene in the late Taisho and early Showa eras.