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Atsushi Uemura, 1933–2024
By Camilla Alvarez-Chow
Portrait of ATSUSHI UEMURA. Courtesy Yomiuri Shimbun.
On November 1, Japanese painter Atsushi Uemura, known for his elegant bird-and-flower (kacho-ga) paintings in the traditional Japanese style of nihonga, passed away at the age of 91. He died of natural causes at his home in Nara, western Japan.
Uemura was born in 1933 into a family of distinguished nihonga painters in Kyoto. He was the eldest son of Shoko Uemura, who dedicated his craft to painting kacho-ga, as well as the grandson of Shoen Uemura, who was famous for her bijin-ga paintings of beautiful women. His father and grandmother were each awarded the Japanese Order of Culture, with Shoen Uemura being the first woman to receive the national accolade.
Inspired by his family and his love for traditional Japanese painting, Atsushi Uemura went on to study at Kyoto City University of Arts, graduating in 1957. During this time, Uemura developed his own style of nihonga that emphasized the role of margins while capturing the emotions of the subjects he observed in the natural world.
Uemura was an avid bird lover, which heavily influenced his work. Throughout his life, he reared more than 1,000 birds of over 200 species, and his residence was later designated as a research institute by the Japanese Society for Preservation of Birds.
In his late 70s, he participated in the Daigokuden hall restoration project at the Heijo Palace in Nara, creating murals for the inner hall. The historical site was the largest palace building that was used for important state ceremonies during the Nara Period (710–784).
Uemura was also a dedicated educator. Since 1994, he was the director of the Shohaku Art Museum, which houses a permanent collection comprising his and his family’s artwork. Additionally, he was the dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Kyoto City University of Arts.
Following in his family’s footsteps, Uemura was awarded Japan’s Order of Culture in 2022 for his contributions to preserving traditional forms of Japanese painting.
Camilla Alvarez-Chow is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.
