Togyu Okumura1889~1990 奥村土牛

OKUMURA Togyu (February 18, 1889 – September 25, 1990) was one of modern Japan’s leading nihonga painters, born in Kyobashi, Tokyo. The art name “Togyu” was given by his father, taken from a line by the Chinese poet Hanshan, “the clay ox plows the stone field.” He entered Kajita Hanko’s school at 16 and revered Kobayashi Kokei as his lifelong master, achieving his first Inten exhibition acceptance at 38 and gradually gaining fame thereafter. He developed a distinctive technique of layering gofun (white shell pigment) and other colors a hundred or more times, producing celebrated works such as “Naruto,” “Daigo,” “Castle,” and “Mount Fuji.” He became a Japan Art Academy member in 1947, received the Order of Culture in 1962, served as president of the Japan Art Institute from 1978, and died in 1990 at age 101.