Iwakichi Shigematsu

Born in Tokyo or Saga Prefecture in 1887. Upon arriving in the United States, he was active on the
West Coast, but suffering from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, he was forced to move to Los Angeles. In the 1915 census, he was residing in New York. It is plausible that he attended the Art Students League in New York while working, forming friendships with Japanese artists such as Eitaro Ishigaki. His artistic record first appeared in the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in April 1917, listing his address as New York. However, around 1918, he seemed to be active in California. He attended the Art Students League in Los Angeles and is said to have visited Mexico.
Around April 1921, Shigematsu returned to Japan and exhibited at the 8th Nika Exhibition in September and, in 1923, at the Sanka Independent Exhibition. With these activities, he has received attention in Japan as one of the artists of the New Art Movements in the Taisho Era, however, he withdrew from the circle around the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake. In 1925, he resided in Taiwan and held a solo exhibition at the building of the Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō (Taiwan Daily News) in July 1929. Later on, he moved to mainland China, and in the 1930s, he received the patronage of Yakichiro Suma, a diplomat posted in Guangdong, realizing two solo shows in Guangdong and one in Shanghai. After the war, he is believed to have returned to Japan. His year of death and place are also unknown.