ARTISTS

Katsukichi Higashi was born in the city of Hita, Oita Prefecture in 1908, and died in 2007.
After retiring from his occupation as a woodman, he took up residence in a nursing home. There, at the age of 83, he began painting in earnest and threw himself into the production of landscape paintings in the town of Yufuin, Oita. Over a period of 16 years until his death at 99 in 2007, he made more than 100 masterful watercolor paintings. His works have been shown mainly at the Exhibition of Pristine Paintings by Katsukichi Higashi (at Yufuin Station Art Hall, 1997), the Triumphant Return to the Hometown exhibition (Hita City Cultural Hall, 2009), and the Walls & Bridges: Touching the World, Living the World exhibition (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 2001).