Okada Saburōsuke

Okada Saburōsuke 岡田三郎助 (1869-1939) 

BIOGRAPHY

Sources: Marubeni Corporation website http://www.marubeni.com/gallery/painting_j/paint_06.html; Mie Prefectural Art Museum http://www.pref.mie.jp/bijutsu/hp/collection/works/okada_e.htm; Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 117-118. 

Born in Saga, in the northwest part of the island of Kyūshū, Okada Saburōsuke, starting at the age of six, lived at the residence of Nabeshima Naohiro, the former lord of the Saga domain. There, he developed his interest in Western-style paintings when he saw the oil paintings of Hyakutake Kaneyuki, an artist from the same region in Japan. In 1887 he joined the school of Yukihiko Soyama (1859-1892). In 1891, Okada became a member of the Meiji Art Association. In the following year, he joined the Taikokan, and studied under Masaaki Horie. Through the painter Kume Keiichiro (1866-1934), Okada became acquainted with Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924), a leader in the Western-style painting movement. In 1895, he exhibited at the National Industrial Exhibition. In 1896, when the Western Painting Department was established at Tokyo Art School, Okada was appointed an assistant professor. Around the same time, he became a founding member, along with Kuroda Seiki and Kume Keiichiro, of the White Horse Society (Hakubakai)1.

In 1897, Okada traveled to France as the first Japanese to study abroad under government sponsorship. Soon after arriving in Paris, Okada visited the painter Raphaël Collin (1850-1916) whom Kuroda Seiki had recommended and became his student. Collin was a successful artist who exhibited at the Salon and who introduced impressionist elements into more acceptable academic techniques. He is credited with having a major influence on a number of Japanese painters. Okada was strongly influenced by Collin, and was one of Collin's Japanese students who faithfully kept his technique, which can be seen in Okada’s paintings of nudes, such as the oil painting pictured on the right.