更新日：2010年7月5日

Arishima Ikuma

The painter and novelist Arishima Ikuma was born in Yokohama in 1882. His real name was Mibuma; he first used Utosei and then Jugatsutei as pen names. His older brother was the writer, Arishima Takeo, and his younger brother, the painter Satomi Ton. After graduating from the Italian department of what has now become the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, he became a disciple of the Western-style painter Fujishima Takeji. He went to Europe in 1905 to study painting and sculpture in Italy and France.

In 1910, immediately after his return to Japan, he took part in the publication of the first issue of Shirakaba, an arts and literary magazine, and became a member of that coterie. He published new-style poems and stories in the magazine, and introduced Cezanne to the Japanese public. In 1913, he published his first collections of stories, "Komori no gotoku" (Like a bat), which showed a brilliant harmony between his intuitions as a painter and his poetic sensitivity. In 1914 he suggested the addition of a second oil-painting section to the Ministry of Education annual exhibition of fine arts, but this was turned down. So instead, he founded the Nikakai (Second Division Society) Exhibition with Ishii Hakutei and Tsuda Seifu. Besides painting he published books such as "Nan-o no Hi" (Days in Southern Europe) and "Uso no Hate" (The End of a Lie). He is also noted for his essay, "Bijutsu no Aki" (Autumn of fine arts) and translation of the recollections of Cezanne. In his later years, however, he concentrated on painting. He died in 1974 at the age of 91.

Arishima Ikuma lived in his father’s cottage at Yuigahama, Kamakura, from 1893 to 1895, then took up residence at Inamuragasaki from 1920 and lived there for the rest of his life. His ashes are buried in Zaimokuza Cemetery. His house at Inamuragasaki has been moved to Shinano-Shinmachi in Nagano prefecture. With the addition of a gallery, it is now the Arishima Ikuma Memorial Museum.