was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 surrealist

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

/avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 active in the Taishō period

Taisho period

The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...

.

His life

His real name is Yoshio. He entered the priesthood and was renamed "Ryosho Koga"; "Harue" is an alias. He was born as the eldest son of the priest of a buddhist temple, Zenfukuji. He belonged to the Pacific Ocean Painting Association Laboratory and the Japanese Watercolor Painting Laboratory after he had gone to Tokyo. He won Nika Prize for "Burial" in 1922. He established an art group "Action" in the same year. He devoted himself to Paul Klee

Paul Klee

Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...

 between 1926 and 1927, and became good friends with Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata

was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...

. A lot of his art works were influenced by the movements and painters in the West such as cubism

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

 (Fernand Léger

Fernand Léger

Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...

), surrealism, Klee, etc., and his style changed one after another in a short term.
In general, his work of several years following "Sea" is considered as the beginning of the surrealism painting in Japan, and had a big influence on the following Japanese arts.

External links

• http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20101008a2.html