HAZAMA Inosuke

1 March [Sat] - 1 June [Sun], 2025

HAZAMA Inosuke (1895-1977) was an artist who earned recognition, from his youth, in the Fusain-kai and in the Nika Association, both organizations of progressive Western-style painters. After two stays in France, he took part in the formation of the Issuikai and, for a time, provided training in painting at Bunka Gakuin and Tokyo University of the Arts. In his later years, he engaged passionately in creating overglaze-enameled ceramics. Along with his creative work, he made efforts to introduce Western art to Japan, editing books of Courbet’s and van Gogh’s works and translating collections of van Gogh’s letters. He also served as the coordinator of the first retrospective in Japan, in 1951, of the work of his teacher, Matisse, negotiating with the artist to make the exhibition happen. Of the works that Hazama, who was of well-to-do origins, collected for his own research, Matisse’s Collioure (1905) and Rousseau’s Quai d’Ivry (ca. 1907) are now in the Ishibashi Foundation Collection— examples of Hazama’s deep ties to our museum.
This exhibition includes sixty works by Hazama, including oil paintings, prints, and ceramics, plus fifteen works with connections to the artist from our collection of Western paintings. Our goal in this, the first Hazama retrospective in Tokyo, is to introduce the many faces of this artist.

Biography

HAZAMA Inosuke

Hazama Inosuke was born in 1895 in Mukojima, Honjo ward (now Sumida City), Tokyo. In 1912, at the age of seventeen, he made his debut in the art world at the Fusain-kai exhibition. He also received two Nika Prizes at Nika Association exhibitions. In 1921, he went to Europe, met Matisse, and sought his instruction. While in Europe, he showed works he had created there back in Japan at the Shunyo-kai Art Society exhibition. Returning to Japan in 1929, he continued to be active in the Nika Association and Shunyo-kai Art Society and was also responsible for the cover design of IBUSE Masuji’s book Shigotobeya (Workroom, published by Shunyodo in 1930). In 1933, he returned to France for the Contemporary Japanese Printmaking and Its Sources exhibition. In 1936, he founded the Issuikai. In 1939, he went to China as a Ministry of the Army employee. In 1941, he was appointed director of the art section of the Bunka Gakuin School. In 1945, Hazama’s studio in Hongo, Tokyo, was burned down in the firebombing of Tokyo. He became an assistant professor at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1949. In 1950, he visited Europe at the invitation of Matisse, and while there carried out negotiations which led to exhibitions in Japan of the work of Matisse, Picasso, Braque, and van Gogh. After returning to Japan, he began learning to make ceramics, starting in about 1951, and occasionally spent time in Komatsu, Ishikawa prefecture. In 1955, the first volume of his translation, Letters of van Gogh, was published by Iwanami Shoten. He created the ceramics section of the Issuikai in 1958 and began construction of a kiln in Suisaka, Kaga, Ishikawa prefecture, in 1961. He traveled to Europe again in 1964 and visited Albania the following year. Hazama died in 1977 at the age of 81.

Exhibition overview

Exhibition title: HAZAMA Inosuke

Exhibition period: 1 March [Sat] - 1 June [Sun], 2025

Opening hours: 10:00 – 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays) *Last entry 30 minutes before closing.

Closed: Mondays（except May 5), May 7

Organizer: Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

With the special cooperation of: the Hazama Inosuke Museum

Venue: 5F Gallery

Concurrent Exhibitions: Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp（6F Gallery）
The Ishibashi Foundation Collection Highlights（4F Gallery）

Ticket prices (incl. tax)

	On-line ticket	In-Person ticket (purchase at museum)
General	1,800 yen	2,000 yen
University college high school students	Free entry　Advance booking required Please present their student ID upon entry.
Disabled visitors (plus one accompanying assistant)	Free entry　Advance booking not required Please present disabled person’s handbook upon entry.
Children through junior high school	Free entry　Advance booking not required

*Online tickets must be purchased up to 10 minutes before the end of each time slot.
*Booking is not accepted when a time slot is full.
*In-Person ticket may be purchased at the museum, if the time slot is not full.
*This admission fee gives the visitor access to the concurrent exhibitions.

Art works

HAZAMA Inosuke, Under Lamplight, 1941, Oil on canvas, Hazama Inosuke Museum, On long-term loan to Kaga City Art Museum

HAZAMA Inosuke, Interior, 1928, Oil on canvas, Hazama Inosuke Museum

HAZAMA Inosuke, Female Back, 1917, Oil on canvas, Private Collection, On long-term loan to Kaga City Art Museum

HAZAMA Inosuke, Landscape in the South of France (View of Cimiez), 1928, Oil on canvas, Hazama Inosuke Museum, On long-term loan to Kaga City Art Museum

HAZAMA Inosuke, Large Bowl with Inlaid Irises, Suisaka Kiln, 1971, Porcelain, Hazama Inosuke Museum, On long-term loan to Kutaniyaki Art Museum

HAZAMA Inosuke, Gosu Overglaze Design on a Kutani Dish: Summer Grove, 1973, Porcelain, Hazama Inosuke Museum

HAZAMA Inosuke, Overglaze Design on a Large Kutani Dish: Quarry in Torigoe-mura, 1975, Porcelain, Hazama Inosuke Museum, On long-term loan to Kutaniyaki Art Museum