Tateishi Harumi (Haruyoshi; 1908-1994)

Harumi was born Tateishi Haruyoshi in Saga Prefecture, where he first studied Western-style oil painting (yoga) with Kajiwara Kango (1887-1958). By 1928, he entered the Tokyo atelier of the Nihonga (Japanese-style) painter Ito Shinsui (1898-1972). In 1931, the painting shown here was accepted for the 12th Teiten and won a prize. Harumi is considered one of the major figure painters of his time and specialized in the genre of bijinga, or beauty painting.

In 1950, Harumi became a founding member of Jitsugetsusha with Ito Shinsui. In 1954 he took the name Harumi and exhibited under this name in 1955 in a one-man show at the Takashimaya Department Store Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo. Beginning in 1963, Harumi served as a juror for the Nitten. He exhibited continuously in all major government-sponsored exhibitions (Teiten, Shin-Bunten, Nitten, Hoshukuten, and so on) throughout his career and won numerous awards.

In 1993, the Saga Prefectural government established a memorial museum for Harumi. He died in Atami (Shizuoka Prefecture) in 1994. His eldest son, Tateishi Hideharu, who is also a Nihonga artist, lives near Atami in Yugawara.

For more paintings by Harumi, see John D. Dower, Anne Nishimura Morse, Jacqueline M. Atkins and Frederic A. Sharf, The Brittle Decade (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 2012).