Asai Chu · 1856–1907
Asai Chu
Asai Chu was a Meiji-period Western-style painter and educator. Born at the Sakura domain's secondary residence in Edo, he studied Western painting at the Technical Fine Arts School and trained younger artists in Kyoto. His Spring Field is an Important Cultural Property.
Asai Chu was born in 1856 (Ansei 3) at the Sakura domain's secondary residence in Edo, the eldest son of a domain samurai. From about the age of thirteen he studied bird-and-flower painting under the Nanga painter Kuronuma Kaizan, and after moving to Tokyo he studied Western painting at the Technical Fine Arts School under Antonio Fontanesi.
In 1889 (Meiji 22) he was a central figure in founding the Meiji Fine Arts Society, and he also served as a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. From 1900 he studied in France, and two years later he returned and moved to the Kansai region. He became a professor at Kyoto Higher School of Arts and Crafts and opened the Shogoin Western Painting Institute (later the Kansai Bijutsuin), where he trained Yasui Sotaro, Umehara Ryuzaburo, and others.
He died in Kyoto in 1907 (Meiji 40). Spring Field is an Important Cultural Property held by the Tokyo National Museum. He also drew illustrations for the book edition of Natsume Soseki's I Am a Cat, together with two other artists.
