(b Hokkaido, 4 Oct 1888; d Tokyo, 28 March 1921). Japanese sculptor. His early years were spent in Asahikawa, Hokkaido. In 1905 he left school in Sapporo and went to Tokyo intending to become a painter. In 1906 he joined the Hakubakai (White Horse Society), where he made friends with Tsune Nakamura. In 1907 he moved to the Pacific Academy of Western Art. The following year he met Morie Ogiwara who had returned to Japan after studying under Rodin in France. With Nakamura he frequently visited Ogiwara’s studio, and he was greatly influenced by him. After Ogiwara’s death, in 1910 he moved from painting to sculpture, receiving instruction from Taketaro Shinkai (1868–1927) at the sculpture and carving department of the Pacific Academy of Western Art. In the same year his sculpture Head of an Old Man (bronze, h. 570 mm, 1910; Asahikawa, Educ. Cttee) was accepted for the fourth Bunten (Ministry of Education Art exhibition). In 1912 he saw three sculptures by Rodin at the Shirakaba (White Birch) art exhibition, which made a lasting impression on him. In 1916 he entered the sculpture department of the Japan Art Institute. In the same year he exhibited a statue of Ishii Tsuruzo (bronze, h. 395 mm, 1916; Asahikawa, Educ. Cttee) at the third In-ten (exhibition of the Japan Art Institute), receiving the Chogyu prize. In 1918 he became a member of the Japan Art Institute. In 1919 he produced one of his most important works, Youth from the Kavkaz (bronze, h. 425 mm, 1919; Tokyo, N. Mus. Mod. A.), using a Russian model called Ninska, who was living in exile in Japan.

• Nakahara, Teijiro
  • Japan, §V, 6(i)(c): Further Western contacts in Meiji period sculpture
  • Ogiwara, Morie