笠木治郎吉 明治時代の幻の画家

笠木治郎吉　明治時代の幻の画家

略歴

石川県に生まれたと言われる笠木治郎吉は、少年期に単身横浜に移り住んだ。治郎吉はワーグマンや五姓田芳柳らの影響を受け画技を磨き、一時欧米に渡ったとも伝えられる。横浜で活動をしていた事情で作品のほとんどが海外に流失し、柳行李いっぱいに保管していた下絵（デッサン）も関東大震災や戦火により消失した。子孫に残されたものは、顔写真１枚と下絵が１点のみであった。しかしその後、高野光正氏という絵画コレクターが治郎吉の作品を約20年に亘って欧米より収集していたことが分かった。

２００6年に、静岡県立美術館を皮切りに数都市で開催された「もうひとつの明治美術展」や２００７年に埼玉県立美術館などで開催された「田園賛歌展」にて高野氏所蔵の笠木治郎吉の作品の一部が公開され、大きな反響を得る。その後インターネットの普及により笠木家が治郎吉の作品数点を海外より買い戻すことができた。このため２０１８年に横浜市歴史博物館にて開かれた「神奈川の記憶展」に笠木家の所蔵作品７点が、２０１９年には東京都府中美術館で行われた「お帰り美しき明治展」に京都の星野画廊から出品された未公開作品が展示され、笠木治郎吉の画業は注目を浴び始めている。

Biograph

It is said that Jirokichi Kasaki, born in Ishikawa Prefecture, moved to Yokohama alone when he was a boy. J.Kasagi improved his artistic skills under the influence of Charles Wirgman and Horyu Goseda . It seems that he also traveled to the United States to study Western paintings.

Since he was active in Yokohama, many paintings were sold overseas and the sketches stored in a trunk made of willow disappeared due to the huge earthquake and war.

The only thing left at the bereaved was one portrait and one sketch only.

However, it turned out that many of the paintings drawn by J. Kasagi were collected from overseas by a collector named Takano.

The painting by J. Kasagi has become known to many people due to the effort by Mr. Takano.

J.Kasagi’s paintings were introduced at "Another Meiji Art Exhibition“ held in 2006 at Shizuoka

Museum and at at the “Hymn of farm land exhibition” held in 2007 at the Saitama Museum. After that, the spread of the Internet allowed the Kasagi family to buy back some of J.Kasagi’s paintings from overseas. For this reason, in the “Kanagawa Memory Exhibition” held at the Yokohama City History Museum in 2018, seven works of Kasagi family were exhibited.

At “Welcome to the Beautiful Meiji Exhibition” at the Fuchu Art Museum in Tokyo in 2019. unpublished works from the Hoshino Gallery were published for the first time.

In this way, J. Kasagi’s achievements has been recognized 100 years after his death.