Asai Chu

Statue of Asai Chû at Sakura City Art Museum, in Sakura, Chiba.

• Born: 1856
• Died: 1907
• Japanese: 浅井忠 (Asai Chuu)

Asai Chû was one of the earliest and most prominent yôga (Western-style oil painting) artists in Japan.

Born into a samurai family in Sakura han (Shimousa province, today Chiba prefecture), he later attended the kôbu bijutsu gakkô ("Technical Art School") in Tokyo, the first and preeminent art school in Japan teaching Western art techniques & styles. He then went on to become one of the leading yôga painters of the Meiji period.

References

• Plaque on Asai Chû statue at Sakura City Art Museum.