FUNAKOSHI Yasutake

舟越保武

(1912 – 2002)

One of the leading sculptors of post-war Japan | 1912 born in Kotoriya, Iwate prefecture | 1939 graduates from the sculpture department of the “Tokyo Art School” | 1950 exhibits sculpted azalea and sells it to the Ministry of Education; converts to Catholicism | 1967-80 professor at “Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music”, now Tokyo University of the Arts | 1981-83 professor at “Tama Art University” | 1984 receives “Order of the Rising Sun” | 1987 suffers a stroke, begins rehabilitation and continues to create with his left hand | 1999 honoured with the “Order of Cultural Merit” | 2002 died