Japanese-Style Painter Atsushi Uemura Dies at 91

Tokyo, Nov. 3 (Jiji Press)--"Nihonga" Japanese-style painting artist Atsushi Uemura, a recipient of the Order of Culture known as a master of "kacho-ga" flower-and-bird paintings, died of old age at his home in the western Japan city of Nara on Friday. He was 91.

He was born in the city of Kyoto, also in western Japan, in 1933 as the eldest son of noted Japanese-style painter Shoko Uemura. His grandmother was Shoen Uemura, famous for her "bijin-ga" paintings of beautiful women in Japanese art.

He graduated from the Japanese-style painting department of Kyoto City University of Arts in 1957. From his student days, he lived with birds around him in the suburbs of Nara and developed his own style of painting that emphasizes the role of margins and captures the emotions of the subjects he observes.

Atsushi Uemura attracted the attention of bird experts when he succeeded in artificial hatching of sandpipers. He reared more than 1,000 birds of over 200 kinds, and his house was designated as a research institute by the Japanese Society for Preservation of Birds.

He participated in the Daigoku-den hall restoration project at the Heijo Palace site in Nara, which was completed in 2010, and worked on the murals inside the hall.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]