Okada Saburosuke
A Western-style painter born in Saga. He studied under Kuroda Seiki and, after studying in France, was called "Okada of the beauty pictures" for his dignified, graceful portraits of women. He received the first Order of Culture in 1937.
Okada Saburosuke was born in 1869 into a samurai family of the Saga domain and went to Tokyo as a boy. He began studying Western painting, and after meeting Kuroda Seiki he took up the plein-air style that makes use of bright light. In 1896 he joined Kuroda, Kume Keiichiro, and others in founding the Hakubakai, and that same year began teaching in the Western painting department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts.
From 1897 to 1902 he studied in France as a Ministry of Education scholarship student, under Raphael Collin. After returning he became a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and trained many painters, including opening the Hongo Western Painting Institute with Fujishima Takeji. He was known for dignified portraits of women in gentle tones and was called "Okada of the beauty pictures." His wife was the playwright Okada Yachiyo.
He received the first Order of Culture in 1937 and died in 1939. The Saga Prefectural Art Museum in his hometown holds the largest Okada Saburosuke collection in Japan, with about 250 related items ranging from oil paintings and drawings to personal belongings, and presents them in a dedicated gallery, "OKADA-ROOM," and in his studio, moved from Tokyo and restored.
