Funakoshi was born in what is now the town of
Ichinohe in the
Iwate Prefecture in northern
Honshū. Later he attended middle school in
Morioka where the painter
Shunsuke Matsumoto was among his schoolmates. In 1939 Funakoshi joined the
Shin Seisaku Kyōkai (, "association for new art") and helped to organize its sculpture division. Together with Matsumoto he held a shared exhibition in Morioka in 1941. Both artists remained friends until Matsumoto's early death in 1948. In 1950 Funakoshi showed the sculpture
Azalea at the 14th exhibition of the
Shin Seisaku Kyōkai. The sculpture was subsequently bought by the ministry of education. In the same year he converted to Catholicism and his new faith proved to have a profound influence on his work, which started to feature Christian motives. From 1958 to 1962 he created the sculptures
Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan and later the
Hara-no-Jo (, Christian
samurai). For the former sculpture he was awarded the
Takamura Kōtarō Prize () and the pope bestowed the
Order of St. Gregory the Great on him in 1964. For the latter sculpture he received the
Nakahara-Teijirō-Prize () in 1972. In addition to his work as an artist Funakoshi worked as a lecturer in his later life as well. From 1967 to 1980 he was a professor at the and from 1980 to 1983 at the . After his retirement in 1983 he became an honorary professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1987 he suffered a stroke, which forced him to switch to his left hand for his future art work. Funakoshi died in 2002 in Tokyo at the age of 89. The sculptor
Katsura Funakoshi is his son. == References ==