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Kikuji Yamashita was born on 8 October, 1919 in Miyoshi, Tokushima, Empire of Japan, is a Japanese artist (1926-1998). Discover Kikuji Yamashita's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 67 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation N/A
Age 67 years old
Zodiac Sign Libra
Born 8 October 1919
Birthday 8 October
Birthplace Miyoshi, Tokushima, Empire of Japan
Date of death 23 November, 1986
Died Place N/A
Nationality Japan

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 8 October. He is a member of famous artist with the age 67 years old group.

Kikuji Yamashita Height, Weight & Measurements

At 67 years old, Kikuji Yamashita height not available right now. We will update Kikuji Yamashita's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

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Dating & Relationship status

He is currently single. He is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, He has no children.

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Kikuji Yamashita Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Kikuji Yamashita worth at the age of 67 years old? Kikuji Yamashita’s income source is mostly from being a successful artist. He is from Japan. We have estimated Kikuji Yamashita's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income artist

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Timeline

Kikuji Yamashita (山下 菊二) was a Japanese Surrealist painter associated with the postwar avant-garde art movement in Japan.

1919

Kikuji Yamashita was born in Miyoshi city, Tokushima prefecture on October 8, 1919.

1937

In 1937, he graduated from Takamatsu Crafts High School in Kagawa Prefecture.

1938

In 1938, he moved to Tokyo and began studying painting under the renowned Japanese Surrealist Ichirō Fukuzawa, who introduced him to the work of Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, and Hieronymus Bosch.

1939

In 1939, he was drafted into the Japanese military and sent to fight in China.

Although he survived the war, feelings of guilt and traumatic memories of his wartime experience, including participating in the torture and murder of a Chinese prisoner, helped shape his ferociously anti-war outlook that was reflected in his later art.

1946

After the war, the Japan Communist Party was legalized by the American-led Allied Occupation of Japan, and Yamashita participated in the formation of the JCP-affiliated Japan Art Association (日本美術会, Nihon Bijitsukai) in 1946.

That following year, he helped co-found the Avant-Garde Art Society (前衛美術会, Zen'ei Bijutsukai), along with Yutaka Bitō, Chozaburō Inoue, Iri Maruki, Tadashi Yoshii and others, and participated in its first exhibition.

Like the Japan Art Society, this "avant-garde" art collective was closely aligned with the "vanguard" Japan Communist Party (JCP), and dedicated itself to producing works of socialist realism in line with the JCP's "cultural policy."

1952

In 1952, bowing to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin's demand that they start an immediate communist revolution, the JCP ordered young artists to go to Ogōchi, a farming village in the mountains west of Tokyo that was scheduled to be obliterated by a dam, and support the formation of "mountain village guerrilla squads" (sanson kōsakutai) by mobilizing farmers' discontent with the dam construction in order to foment a violent communist revolution.

Yamashita was sent to Ogōchi village along with Yutaka Bitō, Hiroshi Katsuragawa, and others.

Yamashita was supposed to paint kamishibai paper plays to inspire and galvanize the farmers into forming a militant resistance movement against the dam.

Ignoring this directive, Yamashita instead produced large-scale surrealist oil paintings allegorizing the plight of the farmers, signaling the beginning of his break with the Communist Party's rigid ideological directives.

It was during this period that he painted his most famous work, "The Tale of Akebono Village," depicting a murdered tenant's rights activist lying facedown in a pool of blood and a grandmother who had hanged herself after being tricked into bankruptcy.

Unsympathetic characters, such as villagers who sided with the landlord and a policeman, are depicted as anthropomorphic dogs and other animals, a theme that would continue in Yamashita's later works.

1953

After returning from the mountains in 1953, Yamashita joined with Bitō, Katsuragawa, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Hiroshi Nakamura, On Kawara, Tatsuo Ikeda, and several other young artists to form the artistic cooperative "Young Artists' Alliance" (青年美術家連合, Seinen Bijutsuka Rengō).

1956

The group lasted until 1956, holding joint art study sessions, publishing a magazine called "Art of Today," and staging exhibitions.

1960

In June 1960, at the height the massive Anpo Protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, Yamashita joined with philosopher Takaaki Yoshimoto and others to form the "June Action Committee" to rally protesters against the treaty.

However, Yamashita also treated the protests as an artistic event, and was observed to randomly show up marching along with groups with which he had no affiliation, calling out strange words and squeezing his way into their ranks with humble apologies, causing bewilderment and laughter on the part of the marchers with his strange antics in an effort to get the “extremely serious youth” to “lighten up.”

In the late 1960s, long after the 1960 Anpo protests had failed to stop the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, Yamashita was still painting unsettling Surrealist paintings lambasting the continued presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil.

Although he continued to paint hundreds of canvases, he deliberately avoided seeking out commercial success, perhaps out of a sense of guilt, and was only able to survive as a full-time artist thanks to his devoted wife's earnings as a beautician.

1962

In 1962, Yamashita held his first solo exhibition.

1970

In 1970, Yamashita penned an essay in which he admitted to his wartime role in murdering a Chinese prisoner, and spoke of the guilt he still felt at his actions.

1974

In 1974, Yamashita founded a new artistic collective called "Hitohito" (从), with which he remained until his retirement in 1984 due to ill health.

Yamashita was a bird lover, and kept several owls as pets in his home.

1976

In 1976, Yamashita was the subject of a documentary film, The Crumbling Swamp: Painter Kikuji Yamashita (Kuzureru numa: Gaka Yamashita Kikuji), produced, directed and edited by Shinkichi Noda.

1986

Yamashita died on November 23, 1986, at the age of 67.

In 1986, just before his death, "The Tale of Akebono Village" and other paintings by Yamashita were included in the major international exhibition "Avant-Garde Arts of Japan 1910-1970," held at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

1996

In 1996, a major retrospective solo exhibition of Yamashita's works was held at the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art.

2010

His artworks were featured prominently in the 2010 documentary film ANPO: Art X War by American documentary filmmaker Linda Hoaglund.

In 2010, Yamashita's paintings were prominently featured in the documentary film ANPO: Art X War by American documentary filmmaker Linda Hoaglund.