1886-?) Nationality: Japanese Activity: Painter Average rate: Renzo Maeda came to Tokyo in 1898 after the death of his mother but fell ill and returned to Nakatsugawa-shi, his native place.
Back in Tokyo in 1902 with the aim of becoming a painter, he was first impressed by the works of Okakura Tenshin and studied with Kajita Hanko before taking part in the exhibitions of the Japanese Association of Painting from 1905.
Maeda joined the Tatsumi gakai group and the Kôji Association in 1907 and became a much respected artist in Japan from 1911.
When Okakura Tenshin died in 1912 he tried to reopen the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts with the help of fellow artists like Daikan and Kanzan.
Maeda travelled to Europe in 1922 with Kobayashi Kokei and visited several countries, notably Egypt, before staying in London for a while. The works he brought back in Italy also proved to what extent he had mastered the technique of painting with ink. He visited China in 1935 and went to Manchuria where he visited the Buddhist grottos of Datong, which he depicted in several of his works.
Maeda settled in Kamakura, near Tokyo, in 1945 and was awarded the medal for Culture ten years later. A major retrospective exhibition of his paintings was held in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya in 1970.
Seison Maeda was considered as one of the greatest Japanese contemporary painters with Yasuda Yuhihiko regarding his historical compositions, his beautiful paintings produced in a yamato-e classical style as well as his portraits such as the one of «Minamoto no Yoritomo in the grotto» dated 1929 representing that warrior in his much colourful combat outfit.
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