Tanaka Isson

Tanaka Isson ( 田 中 一 村 , 22 July 1908 – 11 September 1977) was the

Tanaka Isson
pseudonym of a Japanese Nihonga painter from the Shōwa period noted for his
flower-and-bird paintings of the Amami Islands. His real name was Tanaka Jun.

Contents
Biography
Philately
References
External links

Biography
He was born in what is now Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture, as the son of a
local sculptor. Interested in art at an early age, he won his first award for a Tanaka Isson
watercolor painting at the age of 7. In 1926, he enrolled in the Tokyo Bijutsu Born Tanaka Jun
Gakko (the predecessor to the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and 22 July 1908
Music), where he specialized in Nihonga painting, but left after a few months Tochigi, Tochigi, Japan
without graduating due to his father's illness and lack of funds.
Died 11 September 1977
From 1938, he lived at various locations in Chiba Prefecture, and although his Amami Ōshima,
future initially seemed promising, his isolation from the mainstream art circles Kagoshima Prefecture,
meant that he had difficulty in establishing a name. He was forced to work at Japan
numerous odd jobs to stay alive, while attempting to paint on the side. In the Nationality Japanese
years of World War II, he endured illness and poverty. It was only in 1947, in an Known for Painter
exhibition sponsored by Kawabata Ryūshi, that his name became known to the
Movement Nihonga
art world.

In 1958, at the age of 50, he decided to relocate to Amami Ōshima, where he found employment at a silk factory, earning just
enough for a frugal life. He continued to paint, using the nature of Amami Ōshima for inspiration, and his output through the
1960s and early 1970s was prolific.

Tanaka Isson died in 1977 of a heart attack at the age of 69. After his death, his life and the style of his works were compared
with that of Paul Gauguin on the Japanese national television (NHK)'s Sunday Art Museum program, and in 2001, a memorial art
museum was established in his honor near the airport on Amami Ōshima.[1] In 2018 his work was exhibited outside Japan for the
first time.[2]

Philately
One of Isson's paintings (Amami Forest, palm trees and bougainvillea) was selected by Japan Post for a commemorative postage
stamp in 2003, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the reversion of the Amami islands to Japanese control.
References
1. Larking, Matthew (August 21, 2018). "Tanaka Isson: Better late than never" (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/
2018/08/21/arts/tanaka-isson-better-late-never/). The Japan Times. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
2. Hokao, Makoto (April 19, 2018). "Isson Tanaka's paintings to get first overseas showing in Paris" (http://www.asa
hi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201804190010.html). Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved August 23, 2018.

Tanaka, Isson. Tanaka Isson sakuhinshu: NHK nichiyo bijutsukan "Kuroshio no gafu". Nihon Hoso Shuppan
Kyokai (1985). ISBN 4-14-009108-8
OYA, Tomone. TANAKA Isson: Hōjō no Amami. Nihon Hōsō Shuppan Kyokai (2004). ISBN 978-4-14-080860-3
OYA, Tomone. Motto Shiritai TANAKA Isson: ABC Art beginners' collection. Tokyo Bijutsu (2010). ISBN 978-4-
8087-0876-4

External links
Tanaka Isson Memorial Museum (http://www.amamipark.com/en_isson/en_isson.html)

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This page was last edited on 24 March 2019, at 01:55 (UTC).

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