Terasawa Kōtarō
Terasawa Kōtarō 寺澤孝太郎 (1884-1959)
BIOGRAPHY
A 2021 exhibition of the artist's work at the Hirafuku Memorial Museum in Semboku, Akita, provides some basic information on this little known artist born in Semboku City who contributed to the short-lived magazine Shin Nigao. The museum's summary of the exhibition notes that Terasawa moved to Tokyo in his late teens, aspiring to become a painter and that his style varied depending upon the conventions of the era. In Tokyo he studied Western-style oil painting (yōga) at the Pacific Art Association (Taiheiyō bijutsukai) and the Western Painting Institute (Yōga Kenkyūsho). He would later study Japanese-style painting (nihonga) under Hirafuku Hyakusui 平福百穂 (1877-1933). They note his multiplicity of artist's pseudonyms (gō) including Ryūkō 柳江 (りゅうこう), Mokū 黙雨 (もくう), Ōurū 大潤 (たいじゅん) and Hōtaku 彭澤 (ほうたく) and Kōtarō 孝太郎.
Teresawa Kōtarō
Going Home, oil painting, c. 1909
(photograph scanned from magazine)
The only English language reference I've seen to this artist appeared in the June 1909 issue of the arts magazine International Studio (An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art)1, which cited him as an example of a Japanese artist showing "progress in Western methods. . ." in the recent "Fine Arts Exhibition held a few months ago in Tokio under the auspices of the Department of Education." His painting Going Home, shown left, is described as depicting a "characteristic type of the native labourer."
Terasawa Kōtarō Exhibition
寺澤孝太郎展
Hirafuku Memorial Museum
June 6 through July 19, 2021
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
Sample Seals of the Artist
Artist's stylized seal, possibly reading in part "kō" (寺)
Artist's stylized seal, possibly reading in part "kō" (寺)
last revision:
12-20-23
Prints in Collection
click on thumbnail for print details
Kichiemon
in the role of Takechi Mitsuhide, 1915
IHL Cat. #261
Kikujirō in the role of Hatsugiku, 1915
IHL Cat. #837