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Somiya Ichinen

そみや いちねん

Somiya Ichinen

Aliases: 下田喜七
Pen Names: Somiya Ichinen（Art name used professionally as a painter and essayist）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1893-09-09 （Tsukemachi, Nihonbashi, Tokyo (now Nihonbashi Hamacho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo)）
Died
1994-12-21 age 101
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Tokyo (Nihonbashi, Shimo-Ochiai) → Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture → Fujimi, Nagano Prefecture

Career

Occupations
Western-style painter, Essayist, Tanka poet
Active Years
1911-1994
Affiliations
Nika Association, Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai (Independent Art Association), Kokuga-kai (National Painting Association), Kofukai
Influenced By
Ooshita Tojuro, Fujishima Takeji, Kuroda Seiki, Nakamura Tsune
Influenced
Koyama Goro (student)

Education

Tokyo School of Fine Arts (Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō, old system)
Western Painting Department
Period: 1911-1916
Year of Graduation: 1916
Country: Japan
Studied under Fujishima Takeji, Kuroda Seiki and Yamashita Shintaro

Awards

Japan Essayists Club Award
1959
Work: Kaigan no Yogan (Seaside Lava)
Organization: Japan Essayists Club
Result: 受賞
Chogyu Prize (Nika Exhibition, 12th)
1925
Work: Fuyu-bi / Arizono / Late Autumn Landscape (three works)
Organization: Nika Exhibition
Result: 受賞
Noma Prize
1943
Organization: Noma Prize Committee
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Hirano Yuubae (Evening Glow over the Plain)

1965 Landscape painting

A representative landscape oil painting depicting the lyrical light of sunset over a plain.

evening lightlandscapelight and shadow

Susono no Kumo (Clouds over the Foothills)

1948 Landscape painting / Essay (there is an essay collection with the same title)

Title known both for landscape depictions of clouds over the Mt. Fuji foothills and for an associated essay collection.

Mount Fujicloudsdialogue with nature

Kaigan no Yogan (Seaside Lava)

1958 Essay

An essay collection themed on the seaside and volcanic landscapes. Awarded the Japan Essayists Club Award.

seavolcanodescriptions of nature

Bibliography

  • Somiya Ichinen Works Collection Vol.1-3 (1935-1938)
  • Iha no Mure (1938)
  • Susono (1942)
  • Yubae (1943)
  • Susono (1948)
  • Sode no Naka no Kumo (1952)
  • Harin no Azemichi (1955)
  • Kaigan no Yogan (1958)
  • Nichiyo Zuihitsuka (1962)
  • Dojo no Wata (1964)
  • Tokyo Kaiko (1967)
  • Beni to Haiiro (1968)
  • Hi no Yama (1970)
  • Gaka wa Haigyo (1992)
  • Kumo o Yobu (Poetry anthology, posthumous 1995)
  • Henaburi Shuu-i (1995, posthumous)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyrical and concise essay stylepainting characterized by lyrical realism in watercolors and oils
Recurring Motifs
Mount Fuji / volcanoesclouds and evening glowseaside and rocky shoresfoliage and small landscapes

Health

  • Glaucoma (right eye blindness)
    1959頃
    Lost sight in the right eye; visual impairment progressed thereafter
  • Total blindness (both eyes)
    1971
    Became completely blind and gave up painting; focused on writing and calligraphy

Legacy

Somiya Ichinen is known for lyrical landscape paintings focused on Mt. Fuji, sea and clouds, and for concise, evocative essays. His works are held in multiple museums and he occupies an important place in modern Japanese Western-style painting and essay writing.

Museums

  • Tokoha Art Museum Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
  • Okawa Museum of Art Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
  • Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
  • Sano Art Museum Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
  • Kagoshima City Museum of Arts Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

Academic Societies

  • Kokuga-kai related study groups
  • Somiya Ichinen Study Group

Archives

  • Tokoha Art Museum (donated posthumous works)
  • Okawa Museum of Art (donated posthumous works)

Trivia

  • His birth name was Shimoda Kishichi.
  • His body was donated to Nippon Medical School (Japan Medical University), so no funeral was held.
  • His wife, Setsu, died three days after his death.
  • He lived past 100 and died at age 101.