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.