Self-Portrait

After studying Western painting in Tokyo, in 1908 the Japanese artist Torajiro Kojima journeyed to Paris, with the support of the Ohara family, to continue his studies there. A year later he enrolled at the academy in Ghent, where its director, Jean Delvin, brought him into contact with his friend Emile Claus. Kojima remained in Europe until 1912, but repeatedly returned to the continent after the First World War. He was then commissioned by Magosaburo Ohara to travel across Europe and purchase Western art, including work by Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Henri Marquet and Auguste Rodin, but also by Claus and Delvin. These purchases formed the core of the collection of Western art in the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki, which opened in 1929. As a painter, Kojima was subject to various European influences. As we can see in his Self-Portrait, in addition to Impressionism he was also influenced by Fauvism.