SOTARO YASUI (1888-1955)
Mount Yake-daké or Yake (2, 455m - 8,054 ft)
Japan
In Mount Yakedke, 1941, watercolor, Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura
Mount Yake (2, 455m - 8,054 ft) or Yake-daké (焼岳), literally "Burning mountain" is an active volcano in the Hida Mountains, lying between Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains.
Mount Yake is the most active of all the volcanoes in the Hida Mountains. Its two main peaks are the northern and southern peaks, but visitors can only ascend to the northern peak, as the southern peak is currently a restricted area. A crater lake lies between the two peaks.
Because the lava flowing from Mount Yake has a high viscosity, it is easily able to build a lava dome.
The heat from the volcano produces many onsen in the surrounding area.
In 1911, 22 minor eruptions were recorded.
In 1915, during the Taishō period, however, there was a major eruption. The flow of the lava blocked the Azusa River, which caused the river to form a lake that was named Lake Taishō. The Azusa River is again flowing today, but the lake still remains.
In 1962, there was an eruption that killed two people staying at a small hut near the mouth of the volcano.
In 1995, a tunnel was being constructed on the Nagano Prefecture side of the mountain, through Mount Akandana, which was thought to be part of Mount Yake. At 2:25pm on February 11, the workers encountered volcanic gases, which were quickly followed by a phreatic eruption on Mount Yake, leading to the death of four people. Later explorations have shown that Mount Akandana is an independent volcano.
There is still an active fumarole near the mountain's peak.
The painter
Sōtarō Yasui (安井 曾太郎 was a Japanese painter, noted for development of yōga (Western-style) portraiture in early twentieth-century Japanese painting.
Yasui was born to a merchant class household in Kyoto, but dropped out of commercial high school against his family's wishes to pursue a career in the arts. He studied oil painting under Asai Chū at the Shōgōin Yōga Kenkyujō and Kansai Bijutsu-in (Kansai Fine Art Academy) together with Ryuzaburo Umehara.
In 1907, at the age of nineteen he moved to Paris, France to study at the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens. During this seven years, from 1907 to 1914, he was strongly influenced by the realistic styles of Jean-François Millet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and, in particular, Paul Cézanne. Forced to return to Japan with the outbreak of World War I, in 1915, he made his debut at the Nikakai (Second Division Society) Exhibition, where he displayed forty-four paintings he had made in Paris. For the next ten years, Yasui suffered from recurring health problems and did not participate in exhibitions, while he attempted to perfect his style, which incorporates clear outlines and vibrant colors in portraits and landscapes, combining western realism with the softer touches of traditional nihonga techniques. In 1930, he displayed these techniques in "A Portrait of a Woman" to wide critical acclaim, and was nominated for membership in the prestigious Imperial Fine Arts Academy in 1935.
From 1936, he cooperated with Ikuma Arishima to establish the Issui-kai, a rival organization to the Nikakai. In the postwar period, many of his works were selected as cover art for the literary magazine Bungeishunjū. From 1944, he was a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1952, he received the Order of Culture from the Japanese government.
He died in 1955 of acute pneumonia. His grave is at Shokaku temple in Kyoto.
