Lake Nojiri and Mt. Myoko

While still a student at Saitama Prefectural Urawa High School, Takada’s work was accepted for the first time at the Nikaten in 1929, when he was sixteen years old. He later studied under Sotaro Yasui and joined Issuikai, which Yasui founded in 1936. He then submitted his works to the Bunten and Nitten and received numerous awards. In 1978, he became a member of Nihon Geijutsuin. In 1987, he was chosen as a person of cultural merit. For many years, he worked hard to promote art in Saitama as chairman of Saitamaken Bijutsuka Kyokai, the prefectural association of artists.

Deciduous pine trees cover the foreground with Lake Nojiri beyond and snow-covered Mount Myoko surrounding the lake at the back. Having walked around the lake, Takada stopped near the foreign community, and captured Mount Myoko. The way this landscape is composed is a method frequently identified in Takada’s works. This painting was done around the time the artist familiar as a landscapist began intentionally employing the pointillist method. He later commented, “I didn’t mean to paint in pointillism, but I couldn’t get the feel of the mountain in the distance and the thicket in the front. I tried painting in dots and it worked, so I gave it a go. Professor (Sotaro) Yasui said it was interesting, so, later on, from around 1940, I began painting intentionally in that method.” This painting was done in mid-April. There was still snow under his feet and Takada recalls how unbearably cold it was. The chilly atmosphere comes across from the painting, too.