Aoki was born to an ex-
samurai class household in Shojima-machi
Kurume of Fukuoka Prefecture, northern
Kyūshū, Japan, where his father had been a retainer of the
Arima clan daimyō of
Kurume Domain.
Parallel early life with Hanjiro Sakamoto Aoki was same age and junior highschool friend of Hanjiro Sakamoto who also came to be known as one of the acclaimed Japanese Western-style painters of the 20th century. Aoki and Hanjiro both studied under Miyoshi Mori, an artist who trained in Western-style painting in Kyoto and then returned to Kurume to teach local children. It is known that while studying together in Kurume, Sakamoto considered himself the superior painter. Later on, when Sakamoto became aware of and was surprised by Aoki's development in the capital city, he decided to follow the same institutional path.
Leaving home Although Aoki's family strongly disapproved of his interest in art, he left home in 1899 to continue his studies in
Tokyo. First Aoki studied with
Koyama Shōtarō, who himself was pupil of the Italian
foreign advisor Antonio Fontanesi, who had been hired by the
Meiji government in the late 1870s to introduce western
oil painting to Japan. Later, from 1900 he became a pupil of
Kuroda Seiki, then an instructor at the Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō (present-day
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music).
Success In the autumn of 1902, Aoki travelled to
Mount Myōgi in
Gunma Prefecture and to
Nagano Prefecture on a sketching excursion. After his return, he displayed some of his completed works at Kuroda's 8th
Hakuba-kai Exhibition, where his use of the techniques of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood combined with themes from the
Kojiki resulted in great critical acclaim.
The creation of his masterpiece: A Gift of the Sea Just after graduating from university Aoki set off with three of his friends on a field trip to a fishing village in Chiba Prefecture. It was during their one and a half months’ time spent there that his most well known artwork was born. It is known from the memories of one of his friend, Hanjirō Sakamoto, that it was Hanjirō himself who could one day witness a scene of fishermen returning with an extraordinary catch from the sea. After his description of the scene to his friend, Aoki started to work on expressing the eyewitness’s account in a painting. It is said that he had observed the land shapes and the customs of the surrounding area and they became reflected with wild brush strokes using his brilliant ability of imagination and creativity, in a work filled with his youthful energy. This is how “Gift of the Sea” was created.
Wandering After his completed university studies and a one and a half months sketching trip to Chiba, he relocated to what is now
Chikusei, Ibaraki, where he had a son by his
common law wife Tane Fukuda. However, Fukuda returned home to take care of her ill father in August 1907, and the relationship came to an end. From October 1908, he abandoned his house (in Ibaraki) and went on a prolonged painting trip, creating numerous works, but never settling in any location for an extended period of time. Shigeru Aoki died of
tuberculosis in March 1911 in a Fukuoka City hospital. ==Legacy==