Harada Naojiro · 1863–1899
Harada Naojiro
A Western-style painter born in Koishikawa, Edo. He studied in Munich, Germany, and after returning home opened the painting school Shobikan to train younger artists. He struggled against hostility toward Western painting and died in 1899 at age 36.
Harada Naojiro was a Western-style painter born in 1863 in Koishikawa, Edo. He learned French from childhood and also studied Western painting at the painting school of Takahashi Yuichi before going to Germany in 1884. He studied under the painter Gabriel von Max at the art academy in Munich, where he also made a friendship with Mori Ogai, later a writer.
He returned to Japan in 1887, but a movement to exclude Western painting was gaining strength at the time. In 1889 Harada opened a painting school, the Shobikan, at his home and taught Miyake Kokki, Wada Eisaku, and others. His large work Kannon Riding a Dragon, shown at the 1890 National Industrial Exhibition, was later designated an Important Cultural Property.
Harada died in 1899 at the age of 36. His active career as a painter was short, about ten years, and few of his works survive. The Mie Prefectural Art Museum holds Old Man, thought to be a study from his time studying in Munich.
