Saburo Kurata

Japanese Heisei-era oil painter and art educator Saburo Kurata studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1926. Following his first major exhibitions, he initiated the founding of the “Fumotohito-sha” group of artists. He became a school teacher and presented his painting at the Berlin Olympics. He later served in the Chunyang Association as an international art educator, functioning as its society president for several years.

After the war, Kurata was appointed professor at the Tokyo Gakugei University. He toured the world extensively over the next 30 years. After retirement, he became chairman of the International Society for Education through Art (INSEA). Kurata also wrote a number of books, including the “Art Education Encyclopedia”, and helped empower environmental development by artists through the creation and operation of the Japanese Artist Federation. He died of heart failure.

His conviction was the reconcilability of nature and man in their common environment, which he liked to express in his paintings. The painting with the Japanese title Doriburu mae (Dribbling) was reproduced on a postcard after it was presented at the 14th Shunyokai Exhibition in Tokyo’s Chiyoda district in 1937.