Kosugi Misei 小杉未醒 (1881-1964)

Kosugi was born in Nikkō in 1881. His real name was Kosugi Kunitarō 小杉国太郎 and he is best known by the art name he took later on, Kosugi Hōan 小杉放庵 .  He initially studied Western painting (yōga) under Ioki Bunsai 五百城文哉 (1863-1906) and then with Koyama Shōtarō 小山 正太郎 (1857-1916) at Koyama's Fudōsha school. While at Fudōsha he changed his art name to Kosugi Misei, became active in Taiheiyo Gakai (The Pacific Art Society) exhibition, and won several awards from exhibitions sponsored by the Ministry of Education. He became acquainted with Yokoyama Taikan 横山大観 (1868-1958), who was instrumental in the development of Nihonga, and participated in The Japan Art Institute where he would supervise the Western painting department after the death of the Institute's founder Okakura Tenshin 岡倉 天心  (1863-1913). After the dissolution of the the Institute's Western painting department, he formed the Shun'yōkai, but would eventually turn away from Western models toward his own distinctive interpretation of Nihonga and retake the art name Kosugi Hōan. Laurance Roberts notes that "In his later years, this Japanese style, light and delicate, with frequent touches of humor, almost completely superseded his Western" oil painting work. For a time he made a living as a cartoonist and illustrator for newspapers and magazines, including a stint as an artist-reporter during the Russo-Japanese War. He also designed  lithographs, etchings and woodblock prints. In his later years, he lived in a mountain house in Akakura, Niigata-ken, and passed away in 1964 at the age of 82.