青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

Koide Narashige was born in 1887 to a wealthy merchant family in Osaka. Feeling disengaged from the academism to which he was exposed at the Tokyo Fine Arts School, he journeyed to Europe, where his experience of the Paris art world in the days after Cézanne and Van Gogh only deepened his disillusionment. After returning to Japan, he worked to pioneer a truly Japanese style of oil painting, adopting Western habits in daily life to fully absorb the essence of oil painting into his own identity as a Japanese artist. Together with fellow artists, he established an art institute in Osaka and contributed significantly to the promotion of oil painting in the surrounding Kansai region. His artistic interests spanned multiple fields, including glass painting, Japanese-style painting (nihonga), and book design; he was also widely regarded as a skilled essayist.

Endowed from birth with an urbane Osaka sensibility, Koide lived and worked in Osaka and the nearby city of Ashiya for most of his life. The collected writings and artworks in this volume capture the life of a painter who uninhibitedly pursued his path within that vibrant cultural milieu.

Koide Narashige (1887–1931) was born in Osaka and graduated from the Tokyo Fine Arts School. Together with some of his contemporaries, he established the Shinanobashi Yoga Kenkyujo art institute in Osaka, significantly contributing to the advancement of oil painting in the Kansai region. Regarded as one of the leading Western-style painters of modern Japan, he is best known for his distinctive nudes. He died suddenly at the age of forty-three.