Chikkyo Ono

Chikkyo Ono

Chikkyo Ono was a leading figure of modern Japanese Nihonga painting. He was born in 1889 in Okayama, Japan and began studying under Takeuchi Seihō in Kyoto in 1906, receiving the artist name “Chikkyō.” He completed his studies at the Kyoto City School of Painting (now Kyoto City University of Arts) in 1911. In 1918, together with Murakami Kagaku and Tsuchida Bakusen—his classmates at the school—Ono co-founded the Kokuga Sōsaku Kyōkai (National Painting Creative Association), playing a key role in shaping modern Nihonga. He adopted the name “Chikkyo” in 1923. In 1947, he became a professor at the Kyoto City Art School and later served on the faculty after it was reorganized as Kyoto City University of Arts. In the same year, he was appointed a member of the Japan Art Academy. While Kagaku and Bakusen passed away relatively young, Ono continued to be a central figure in the Japanese art world after the war, and in 1976 he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit. His former residence near Tōji-in Temple in Kyoto remains enveloped in a quiet, contemplative atmosphere, and the surrounding gardens and temple grounds—filled with trees that inspired his paintings—still reflect the natural motifs central to his work.