News Release
ATZ220517̲E̲EMay 17, 2022
Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

Two Journeys: Aoki Shigeru and Sakamoto Hanjiro
Commemorating the 140th Anniversary of Their Births

July 30 [Sat.] - October 16 [Sun.], 2022

Left ： AOKI Shigeru, Paradise under the Sea, 1907, Oil on canvas,
Important Cultural Property
Right：SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Three Grazing Horses, 1932, Oil on canvas

The Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation (Director: Ishibashi Hiroshi), presents Two Journeys:
Aoki Shigeru and Sakamoto Hanjiro Commemorating the 140th Anniversary of Their Births.
Aoki Shigeru（1882-1911）and Sakamoto Hanjiro（1882-1969）were both born in what is nowKurume, Fukuoka prefecture. They studied at the same elementary school, enrolled at the same
private Western-style art school, and both aimed to become painters. In a period when Westernstyle painting was approaching maturity in Japan, each pursued his own individual style. Aoki
made his debut in the world of painting while studying at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now Tokyo
University of the Arts). His A Gift of the Sea attracted attention amidst the rise of the trend towards
Meiji Romanticism, winning him acclaim while still quite young. Despite his career’s brilliant
start, he spent the last years of his life traveling aimlessly around Kyushu. His dream of returning
to the heart of the art world unrealized, he died quite young.
Sakamoto, stimulated by Aoki, also moved to Tokyo, where he made his debut several years
after Aoki’s. After studying abroad in Paris, he returned to his hometown, where he steadilycreated work on a variety of themes, including horses, still lifes, and the moon, until his death at87. Over those years, he developed a tranquil world view.
These two artists were utterly different in personality and style, but Aoki and Sakamoto were
aware of each other and also, it is clear, competed with and encouraged each other.
This exhibition commemorates the 140th anniversary of these two artists’ birth with about 250of their works on display. The focus is on works that express their individual characteristics andtheir relationship with each other as we explore these two artists’ journeys during theiroccasionally intersecting lives.
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Exhibition Highlights
１．66 Years Since Their Last Joint Exhibition
There have been multiple, but separate, retrospective exhibitions for both Aoki Shigeru andSakamoto Hanjiro on significant anniversaries. The last time their works were shown together,
however, was in 1956 at the Works by Aoki Shigeru and Sakamoto Hanjiro exhibition at theformer Ishibashi Museum of Art. This exhibition is the first opportunity since then to see acompetitive presentation of the works of these Kurume natives.

２．Rare and Fabled Works From Their YouthIn recent years we have added twenty-five of Aoki’s sketches of Gigaku (masked dance) andBugaku (court dance and music) masks to our collection. It has been nearly forty years sincethese “mask sketches” were displayed as a group. It has also been forty years since the last
public showing of Sakamoto’s Girl Sleeping, a work produced while the artist was in Europe.

Left: AOKI Shigeru, Sketches of Gyodo Masks, c.1900-1903,
Pencil and watercolor on paper
Right: SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Girl Sleeping, 1923, Oil oncanvas, Private Collection

３．Masterworks Side by Side
After Aoki’s death, fearing that his works would be scattered and lost, Sakamoto appealed toIshibashi Shojiro, out of friendship, to collect Aoki’s works and build a museum for them.
Because of this connection, what is now the Ishibashi Foundation Collection includes about
sixty works each by Aoki and Sakamoto. This exhibition of nearly 250 works, which also includes
works on loan, brings their signature works together for the first time. While we organized
retrospectives for Aoki in 2011 and Sakamoto in 2006, this exhibition is a rare opportunity tosee their works—from the early to the final works of their careers—side by side.

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Aoki Shigeru
Born in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture, in 1882. In 1903, while studying at the Tokyo
Fine Arts School (now Tokyo University of the Arts), he made his debut on the art
scene with a group of works on mythological themes. The following summer, hestayed with his friends Sakamoto Hanjiro and Morita Tsunetomo and his lover
Fukuda Tane in a fishing village on the Boso Peninsula (now Tateyama, Chiba
prefecture). There his friend’s description of the landing of a huge catch stirred
Aoki’s imagination, and he created A Gift of the Sea. He returned to Kurume in1907 and then roamed aimlessly all over Kyushu. He had planned his return tothe art world, but died, that dream unrealized, of tuberculosis in 1911, at the ageof twenty-eight.

Sakamoto Hanjiro
Born in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture, in 1882. In 1902, at Aoki’s invitation, hemoved to Tokyo and studied at Fudosha, a private art school, and the Taiheiyo Art
Research Institute. After Aoki’s death, he worked to honor him, organizing
exhibitions of his work and editing a collection of his paintings. In 1912, hisUsurebi (Faint Light, On loan to Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum), which he showedin the Bunten (Ministry of Education Exhibition), was highly praised by thenovelist and art critic Natsume Soseki. In 1914, he took part in organizing the Nika
Association, a society of progressive Western-style artists, and its Nika Exhibition.
In 1924, after three years of study in Paris, he returned to his hometown, Kurume.
In 1931, he moved to nearby Yame. He continued painting cows, horses, Nohmasks, the moon, and other subjects, in his tranquil style, throughout his long life, which ended in 1969 atthe age of 87.

【広報用図版】
12

4

35

6

1 AOKI Shigeru, Self-Portrait, 1903, Oil on canvas
2 AOKI Shigeru, Yomotsuhirasaka, Escape from the Land of the Dead, 1903, Colored pencil, pastel and watercolor on paper,
Tokyo University of the Arts *On display in the second half of the exhibition period.
3 AOKI Shigeru, Portrait of Sakamoto Hanjiro, 1903, Pencil and watercolor on paper, Private Collection *On display in the firsthalf of the exhibition period.
4 AOKI Shigeru, Hot Spring, 1910, Oil on canvas, Private Collection
5 AOKI Shigeru, A Gift of the Sea, 1904, Oil on canvas, Important Cultural Property
6 AOKI Shigeru, Seascape, 1904, Oil on canvas

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7 SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Self-Portrait, 1929, Oil on paper
8 SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Woman with a Hat, 1932, Oil on canvas
9 SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Cow, 1919-65, Oil on canvas, Private Collection
10 SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Noh Mask and Hand Drum Body, 1962, Oil on canvas
11 SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, Flowerpots, 1962, Oil on canvas, Kurume City Art Museum
12 SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, The Moon, 1966, Oil on canvas, Muryojuin-Temple, on loan to Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art

Exhibition Overview
Exhibition title:

Two Journeys: Aoki Shigeru and Sakamoto Hanjiro
Commemorating the 140th Anniversary of Their Births
Organized by
Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation
Venue:
Artizon Museum, 6,5F Galleries
Exhibition period:
July 30 [Sat.] - October 16 [Sun.], 2022
Opening hours:
10:00 – 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays except September 23)*Last entry 30 minutes before closing.
Closed:Mondays (except September 19, October 10), September 20, October 11
Admission (incl.tax):
Timed entry system(Online booking starts from May 31, 2022)
Online ticket: 1,600 yen
Same day ticket (on sale at museum): 1,800 yen
Students: Free entry (Advance online booking required.)*This admission fee gives the visitor access to the concurrent exhibitions.
*Same day tickets on sale at the museum are available only for time slotsthat have not reached full capacity.
*Advance booking is not required for children up to junior high schoolage.
*Works on display will be changed during the exhibition period.
First half: July 30 [Sat.] - September 11 [Sun.] Second half: September 13 [Tue.] - October 16 [Sun.]*The exhibition details are subject to change without notice.
Curators:
ITO Eriko, HARA Sayuri
Traveling to:
Kurume City Art Museum, Main Building, 2F（Exhibition period: October 29 [Sat.], 2022 - January 22 [Sun.], 2023）
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Concurrent Exhibition
Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection Special Section

Country, City, Family
The 4F Gallery introduces selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection, plus a special
section with a carefully chosen group of cityscape paintings, a genre that flourished in theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially in Italy. With portraits also included, this section
focuses on family relationships in the country and the city, unraveling the history of theirtransformations.

Giovanni Battista PIRANESI, The Piazza del Quirinale, withthe Statues of the Horse-Tamers seen from the Back (fromViews of Rome)Charles MÉRYON, Petit Pont,
1852 and later, Etching andengraving

Organized by
Venue:
Curators:

Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation
Artizon Museum, 4F Gallery
HARA Sayuri

Exhibition period:
Opening hours:

July 20 [Sat.] - October 16 [Sun.], 2022
10:00 – 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays except September 23)*Last entry 30 minutes before closing.
Mondays (except September 19, October 10), July 29, September 20,October 11

Closed:*Special notice for July 20 [Wed.] to July 28 [Thu.]
Only the 4F Gallery will be open; the 5F and 6F Galleries will be closed.
Admission (incl.tax):

Timed entry system(Online booking starts from May 20, 2022)
Online ticket: 500 yen
Same day ticket (on sale at museum): 500 yen
Students: Free entry (Advance online booking required.)*Same day tickets on sale at the museum are available only for time slotsthat have not reached full capacity.
*Advance booking is not required for children up to junior high schoolage.
*This admission fee gives the visitor access to Selections from the Ishibashi
Foundation Collection (4F Gallery).

5/６Artizon Museum
1-7-2 Kyobashi Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0031 Japan
Tel. Domestic: 050-5541-8600 International: +81 47-316-2772 (Hello Dial)
https://www.artizon.museum/en/
Directions: 5 minutes on foot from JR Tokyo Station (Yaesu Central Exit); Tokyo Metro Ginza Line Kyobashi
Station (No.6, 7 Exit); Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Tozai Line, Toei Asakusa Line Nihombashi Station (B1 Exit)

Images for Press Use
If using only one image, choose one from Page1.
Include image credits as provided.
Do NOT trim images or overlay them with text.
■ Please download images from the site below.
Download images for press use here:
https://www.artpr.jp/artizon/aokisakamoto2022* Sakamoto Hanjiro’s works are still protected by copyright, but permission has been received touse these images to publicize this exhibition.
* All works are in the collection of the Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, unless otherwise
noted.

For inquiries about this press release:
Artizon Museum Public Relations GroupE-mail: publicity@artizon.jp TEL: +81 3-6263-0132(Direct)
1-7-2 Kyobashi Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0031

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