Seimatsu Hamaji

Hamaji was born in Tsuga Village, Higashimuro District (now part of Kushimoto Town), Wakayama Prefecture. After graduating from Koza Higher Elementary School, he moved to the United States at the age of 16, counting on his elder brother Seikichi. During the time of San Jose High School, his teacher recognized his talent to see a portrait painting of Hamaji’s grandfather, and he enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After graduating in 1909, he moved to New York, where he made a living through design work and kept engaging in painting. In the mid-1910s, he joined the Japanese Art
Association in New York, and in 1920, he participated in Nihonjin Ga Kai (Japanese Artists Society). Followingly, Hamaji came back to Japan, establishing a Western painting school in Shingu City, slightly north of his town, aiming for the popularization of oil painting in this region. In 1925, he moved to America again and exhibited at the Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by Japanese Artists in New York organized by The Japanese Times in 1927. He immediately went to Paris, where he achieved selections in exhibitions such as the Salon National, and upon returning to Japan in 1928, his Red Beret (now a collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama) received a special prize at the Teiten (Exhibition of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts). In 1929, he participated in the founding of the First Art Association, in which he played an active role until his passing in 1947, as well as in Teiten and Shin Bunten (Reorganized Ministry of Education Art Exhibition).