Yasui Sotaro
A Kyoto-born painter who, with Umehara Ryuzaburo, represented Western-style painting in the Showa era. Using firm forms learned from Cezanne and bright colors suited to Japan's climate, he painted portraits and landscapes.
Yasui Sotaro was born in 1888 into a merchant family in Kyoto and studied under Asai Chu and others at the Shogoin Western Painting Institute (later the Kansai Bijutsuin). In 1907 he went to France and studied at the Academie Julian, where he was especially drawn to Cezanne. After about seven years abroad he returned to Japan in 1914, the year the First World War began.
For a while after his return he struggled with poor health and the difference between the climates of Japan and France, and spent a period searching for his style. His own manner took hold from around "Portrait of a Woman" in 1930, and he won high praise for portraits that boldly simplified form, such as "Kinyo" in 1934. He also left many works painted from landscapes seen on his travels.
In 1936 he joined the founding of the Issuikai, and during the war he became a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He received the Order of Culture in 1952 and died in 1955. "Oirase Stream" at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, was shown at the 1933 Nika exhibition and depicts a mountain gorge in Aomori. After the war he also did cover illustrations for the magazine Bungei Shunju, which made him widely familiar.