Portrait of Mushanokoji Saneatsu

Tsubaki Sadao was born in Yamagata prefecture and left Yonezawa Middle School at the age of 18 to travel to Tokyo. There he studied under Kishida Ryusei and participated in the Sodosha group from its first exhibition. Tsubaki gradually deepened his interactions with the members of the Shirakaba group, and participated in the Shun’yokai and Kokugakai, as he spent his life seeking a form of Oriental realism. Though Tsubaki was heavily influenced by Ryusei during his teacher’s lifetime, even Tsubaki’s earliest works reveal his own distinctive style, and he was highly regarded in the post-war period for his unique painting style with its richly human flavor. This portrait depicts Mushanokoji Saneatsu, an author who was a central figure in the Shirakaba group. Records state that the painting was created at the “New Village” utopia established by Saneatsu in Miyazaki prefecture. The painting fully conveys Tsubaki’s form of realism.