Aoki Shigeru
A Western-style painter from Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. He painted Romantic works inspired by Japanese myth and antiquity and died at 28. "Bounty of the Sea," painted on the sea of Boso, is an Important Cultural Property.
Aoki Shigeru was born in 1882 (Meiji 15) in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. In middle school he studied painting with the Western-style painter Mori Sanbi together with his classmate Sakamoto Hanjiro. He went to Tokyo, entered the Western painting department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1900 (Meiji 33), and studied under Kuroda Seiki and others.
Even as a student he was strongly drawn to myths such as the Kojiki, and in 1903 (Meiji 36) he received the first Hakubakai Prize for a work on a mythological subject. In the summer of 1904 (Meiji 37), just after graduating, he stayed on the seashore at Mera in Boshu (now southern Chiba Prefecture) with Sakamoto and his lover Fukuda Tane and painted "Bounty of the Sea." It vividly depicts a procession of naked fishermen carrying a big fish along the beach on a horizontal canvas, and is marked by vigorous brushwork in which unpainted areas and underdrawing lines can be seen. "Bounty of the Sea" was shown at the Hakubakai exhibition that same year.
"The Palace of the Sea God" of 1907 (Meiji 40) is another major work joining sea and myth. But he did not receive the recognition he hoped for, and after returning home that same year upon his father's death he worked while wandering around Kyushu. He died in a Fukuoka hospital in 1911 (Meiji 44), at the age of 28. Both "Bounty of the Sea" and "The Palace of the Sea God" are held by the Artizon Museum. In his hometown of Kurume, the Aoki Shigeru former residence is preserved.
