Black Obi

Born in Saga Prefecture, OKADA Saburosuke came into contact with oil painting through the work of HYAKUTAKE Kaneyuki and decided that he wished to study Western art. He traveled to Tokyo where he studied under SOYAMA Sachihiko and HORIE Masaaki. An old friend from Saga, named KUME Keiichiro, introduced him to KURODA Seiki after the latter returned from France and he went to study at the Tenshin Dojo. He was one of the founder members of the Hakuba-kai (White Horse Society) and when the Western Painting Department was established at Tokyo School of Fine Arts he joined FUJISHIMA Takeji there as an assistant professor. In 1897 he traveled to France as the first student to be officially sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education. As with KURODA, he studied under Raphäel Collin. In 1907, a few years after his return, he was selected to be a judge at the first Bunten (Ministry of Education Art Exhibition) where he worked with MORI Ogai and others, going on to become a central figure in the exhibition.
The work shown here was exhibited in the ninth Bunten. In it we see a kimono-clad woman relaxing on a Western-style bench, the light is soft and the shadows expressed in a purple hue. The contrast between the white chair, the kimono and the black of the model’s obi and hair is most striking. This method of showing a woman positioned against a background of outdoor shrubbery was a specialty of Collin’s and this painting shows us how faithfully OKADA had mastered his teacher’s style.