Chiura Obata

Chiura Obata Biography.

   Chiura Obata (小圃 千浦 Obata Chiura?, Nov. 18, 1885 - 1975) was a well-known Japanese-American artist. A self-described "roughneck", Obata came to the United States in 1903, at age 17. After initially working as an illustrator and commercial decorator, he had a successful career as a painter, following a 1927 summer spent in the Sierra Nevada, and was a faculty member in the Art Department at the University of California at Berkeley from 1932 to 1953, interrupted by World War II, when he spent over a year in internment camps. After his retirement, he continued to paint and to lead group tours to Japan to see gardens and art.
   Obata was born in 1885 in Okayama prefecture in Japan.[1] He was the youngest of a very large family. At the age of five, he showed a natural inclination for drawing. He was then adopted by his older brother, Rokuichi,[1] who was himself an artist. At the age of seven he began his formal training by a master painter in the art of sumi-e, Japanese ink and brush painting.[1][2]At the age of 14, Obata ran away from home to avoid being put into military school. In Tokyo, he became apprenticed to the painter Tanryo Murata for three years.[1] He also studied with Kogyo Terasaki and Goho Hasimoto. He was trained in Western as well as Japanese art, painting throughout his life with the Western influence.[1] Shortly after he finished his apprenticeship, he received a very prestigious art award in Tokyo.[1

Chiura Obata

 Chiura Obata

 Chiura Obata

 Chiura Obata

 Chiura Obata

 Chiura Obata

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Chiura Obata

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Chiura Obata

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