MARUKI Iri

1901-1995, born in Hiroshima. Maruki Iri was born in Iimuro Village, Asa-gun, Hiroshima Prefecture (now Asakita-ku, Hiroshima City). He moved to Tokyo in 1923 and studied under a painter of the Maruyama-Shijo school. However, finding himself unsuited to standardized academic training, he began exploring experimental approaches to Nihonga (Japanese-style painting), incorporating elements of abstraction and Surrealism. In 1941, he married Toshi, a Western-style painter. Soon after the atomic bombing, the couple visited Hiroshima, and the experience led them to produce the Hiroshima Panels (1950–82), a collaborative series combining Iri’s bold ink wash techniques with Toshi’s delicate renderings of the human figure. Throughout their lives, they continued to work together to depict the human suffering caused by war and environmental devastation in paintings such as Minamata (1980) and The Battle of Okinawa (1984–87).