浅井忠

Asai Chū was born on July 22, 1856 (21st day, 6th month, Ansei 3) in Kobiki-chō (in today’s Chūō Ward, Tokyo) at one of the Edo residences of the Sakura clan (which had its domain in modern-day Chiba Prefecture). His childhood name was Chūnojō, later changed to Tsuneyasu. He was fond of drawing from the beginning and went on to develop an interest in Chinese classic literature and calligraphy. In 1863 (Bunkyū 3), following the relaxation of the “sankin kōtai” (a policy that required clan leaders to reside alternately between their domain and the shogunate’s capital), he moved to Sakura to live. With the death of his father, he assumed the position of head of the family at a young age. He studied under the Nanga-School painter Kuronuma Kaizan around 1868 (Meiji 1) and took the artist’s name “Kaitei,” one of several pseudonyms he would adopt. In 1873 he moved back to Tokyo and undertook English studies. In 1876, over the objections of those around him, Asai decided to become a painter. He first entered Kunisawa Shinkurō’s art school Shōgidō, before enrolling in Kōbu Bijutsu Gakkō (Art School of the Imperial College of Engineering), where he received instruction in Western-style painting from the Italian Antonio Fontanesi (1818–1882). Among his classmates were Koyama Shōtarō, Matsuoka Hisashi, Takahashi Genkichi, Indō Matate, Morizumi Isana, Fuji Gazō, Nakamaru Seijūrō, Yamamoto Hōsui, and Goseda Yoshimatsu. Once women students started to be accepted soon after, Jinnaka Itoko, Yamashita Rin, and others joined the class. Fontanesi’s refined teaching method, as well as his noble character, fascinated his students. In 1878, however, he resigned due to ill health and returned to his home country, signing off with the exhortation, “From now on, study diligently with nature as your teacher.” (Note 1) He arranged for another Italian to take his place, but Prospero Ferretti’s methods proved so unsatisfactory Asai, Koyama, Matsuoka, Indō, Takahashi, and their companions left the school as one that November. Joined by other artists, including Matsui Noboru and Honda Kinkichirō, they formed the study group Jūichikai (Eleven Circle) (dissolved in April 1880). The following year, Asai became an instructor in art at Tokyo Teacher Training School (later Tokyo Higher Normal School), although he resigned in 1881 shortly after being appointed assistant teacher. During this period, he, Koyama, and other colleagues traveled to various parts of Japan, sketching from nature. In 1882, the influential American art historian Ernest Fenollosa spoke out in favor of maintaining Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) and rejecting Yōga (Western-style painting), an opinion that evoked strong responses in the Japanese art world. Asai banded together with Koyama, Takahashi, Matsui, Honda, and others the following year to counter Fenollosa’s injunction. At the Tokyo Prefectural Competition for Crafts, held in 1887, Asai, Koyama, and their fellows exhibited 32 oil paintings to demonstrate “the vigor that could overpower Nihonga.” (Note 2) Asai’s “Nōfu kiro” 農夫帰路 (Farmers Returning Home) (1887, Hiroshima Museum of Art), thought to have been among the pieces shown, is one of his earliest surviving works in Japan today. In 1889, along with Koyama, Matsuoka, Matsui, Takahashi, Honda, and Naganuma Moriyoshi, he led a united front of all Yōga artists in founding the Meiji Bijutsukai (Meiji Art Association). One of its first projects was to arrange a lecture by a visiting British watercolorist, Alfred East—an event that set off a watercolor “boom” in Japan. At the association’s first exhibition, also held that year, Asai exhibited three works, including “Shunpo” 春畝 (Vegetable Garden in Spring) (1888, Tokyo National Museum, Important Cultural Property). From 1892, a temporary art class was organized at the association’s office (known as Meiji Bijutsu Gakkō [Meiji Art School] from 1894), where he taught alongside Honda, Takahashi, Matsui, and Matsuoka. When the First Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1894, Asai served as a correspondent-illustrator for the daily newspaper Jiji Shinpō from September 14 to December 6. Meanwhile, the participation in the Meiji Art Association of Kuroda Seiki and Kume Keiichirō, recent returnees from France, divided opinion over the very different painting styles they brought with them. Kuroda withdrew from the association in 1896 and formed the Hakubakai (White Horse Society), while taking a teaching job at the newly established Yōga department at Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō (Tokyo Fine Arts School, present-day Tokyo University of the Arts). Both the Meiji Art Association and Meiji Art School suspended their activities. Some journalists represented these moves as being the result of a conflict between Kuroda’s new “Murasaki-ha” (Violet School) of bright tones and Asai’s old “Yani-ha” (Resin School) of dark tones. Asai saw behind the controversy the hand of Okakura Tenshin, a scholar close to Fenollosa and who shared his traditional aesthetic values, attempting to disrupt the Yōga circles. Nevertheless, Asai and Koyama both remained on good terms with Kuroda, with Asai and Kuroda even celebrating New Year’s together at the seaside in Chiba Prefecture in 1897. A work thought to have been created on that occasion, “Onjuku kaigan” 御宿海岸 (Onjuku Beach) (1897, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto), shows in its use of color the influence of the Murasaki-ha’s pleinairism. In July 1898, the year of the Meiji Art Association’s Ten-Year Memorial Exhibition, Asai was appointed a professor in the Yōga department of Tokyo Fine Arts School. It is said a decision was taken to appoint a representative figure from the Meiji Art Association to strike a balance with the Hakubakai. Asai wryly stated that he was made a “human sacrifice.” The following year, he concurrently assumed the role of Yōga teacher at Tokyo Higher Normal School. The teaching of Western-style painting had declined there since the departure from the staff of Koyama Shōtarō—forced out in 1890 following a conflict with Okakura Tenshin over its art education policy—and Asai’s arrival marked the start of a revival. After six months or so, Koyama returned to replace him. In 1899, Asai was nominated as a special judge for the Paris Exposition Universelle—along with Kuroda, Kume, Matsuoka, Koyama, Naganuma, and others—and he traveled to France the following year. He began by devoting his time there to the study of design, a subject that had long interested him. He had, for example, been involved in the design innovation movement promoted by Hototogisu, a magazine associated with the poet Masaoka Shiki. At the Exposition venue, Asai observed the latest Art Nouveau and other design styles from around the world, while also busying himself visiting museums and galleries, art schools, textile works, and sculpture casting factories. That September, in Paris, he met Nakazawa Iwata, the head of the Scientific and Engineering department at Kyoto Imperial University. They immediately hit it off while discussing fine arts and crafts. Later, after his return to Japan, Asai would be invited to be a professor at Kyoto College of Technology (forerunner of today’s Kyoto Institute of Technology), which Nakazawa was establishing. Asai made great strides as a painter while in France. In August 1899, he and Kawakita Michisuke went to paint in and around the village of Grez-sur-Loing, 70 kilometers south of Paris. From then until 1902, he visited the area four times, on one occasion spending half a year with Wada Eisaku. The experiences gave birth to such fine works as the oil painting “Gurē no Aki” グレーの秋 (Autumn in Grez-sur-Loing) (1901, Tokyo National Museum) and the watercolor “Kahan Yōkan” 河畔洋館 (Old Castle by the River) (1902, Sen-Oku Hakukokan Museum). After returning to Japan in July 1902, Asai moved two months later to Kyoto to take up the professorship at the Kyoto College of Technology. The following June, he opened Shōgoin Yōga Kenkyūjo (Shōgoin Institute of Western Art), using rooms in the “nagaya-mon” (gate house) of his own residence—absorbing the art schools of Itō Yasuhiko, Sakurai Tadataka, and Makino Katsuji—and would instruct many students there over the next few years. In March 1906, the school evolved into Kansai Bijutsuin (Kansai Art Institute), with Asai as director. Between them, the two institutes turned out an array of fine painters, including Yasui Sōtarō, Umehara Ryūzaburō, and Tsuda Seifū. Asai also became an influential figure in the Kyoto craft world. In the field of ceramic design, he played a leading part in introducing innovation, especially by helping to found the group Yūtōen in April 1903. Centered around Nakazawa Iwata, the man he had met in Paris, it brought in designers such as Kamisaka Sekka and Takeda Goichi and ceramists such as Kinkōzan Sōbei, Kiyomizu Rokubei V, Miyanaga Tōzan, Itō Tōzan, and Sawada Sōzan. In the field of lacquer art design, Asai also led innovation by forming the group Kyōshitsuen in August 1906. Again, it was centered around Nakazawa and included artists and designers such as Takeda Goichi, Kamisaka Sekka, Taniguchi Kōkyō, Furuya Kōrin, and Itō Tozan, as well as the lacquer artists Kōda Shūetsu, Sugibayashi Kokō, Tojima Kōfu, Iwamura Shinjirō, Tomita Makoto, and others. His various new design attempts in Kyoto were dubbed “Mokugo Zuan” (Mokugo Designs), after the professional name he was then using. The influence of Mokugo Zuan in the Yūtōen and Kyōshitsuen, however, lasted only up until Asai’s death, before disappearing under the impact of Kamisaka Sekka. Even so, there is no doubting his instrumental role in the modernization of Kyoto craft design. In 1907, the artist fell ill while traveling in Hida. Two more trips to Tokyo followed, but after returning home from the second, he collapsed and had to be admitted to Kyoto Imperial University College of Medicine Hospital. A week later, on December 16, he passed away at the age of 51. (Kajioka Shuichi / Translated by Ota So & Walter Hamilton) (Published online: 2025-02-26) Notes 1. Matsuoka Hisashi sensei denki hensankai [Editorial group of the biography of Professor Matsuoka Hisashi], ed., “Matsuoka Hisashi sensei” [Professor Matsuoka Hisashi], Matsuoka Hisashi sensei denki hensankai, 1941, p. 29. 2. “Asai Chū shi iku” (Asai Chū Passed Away),” Yomiuri Shimbun, December 17, 1907; repr. in Shimada Yasuhiro and Maekawa Masahide, eds., “Chu Asai Catalogue Raisonné,” Tokyo Art Club and Kyuryudo Art-Publishing Co. Ltd., 2016, p. 589.