Fuku Akino (1908–2001) was a Japanese-style painter born in Shizuoka Prefecture. He studied at the Kyoto Municipal School of Fine Arts and, after the war, helped found the Sōzō Bijutsu (Creative Art) group alongside artists such as Matsutaka Uemura. Whilst grounded in the traditions of Japanese painting, he continually sought forms of expression that were not bound by the established art world; his encounter with India, in particular, marked a major turning point in his artistic career. Deeply captivated by the intense sunlight, the arid landscape, the temples and the daily lives of the people there, he continued to depict India as a central theme in his work right up until his later years. In 1999, he was awarded the Order of Culture.

In Fuku Akino’s works, one senses a keen gaze that seeks not merely to capture exotic landscapes for their novelty, but to encapsulate within the canvas the very atmosphere and passage of time of those lands. The colours of the parched earth, the deep blue sky and the walls of buildings are boldly composed; whilst the compositions are tranquil, they seem to convey even the heat of the earth. To me, Fuku Akino’s paintings appear less as ‘Japanese paintings depicting India’ and more as a record of how he confronted a different culture head-on and reshaped his own style of Japanese painting. I believe their great appeal lies in the coexistence of power and tranquillity.