OKABE Akira

OKABE Akira (1927-) Industrial artist (metal carving). Born in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. Currently resides in Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture. He is the third generation of a metal carving family, and he grew up watching the realism of his grandfather Kakuya, who was a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the poetic world of his father Tatsuo. After graduating from the Veterinary Medicine Department of the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 1947, he created a laboratory for drawing models and devoted himself to studying for 30 years. In sumi ink paintings black and white are seen as objects and space respectively, but by using a method of reversing that he overcame metal carving’s weak-point of being deficient in expressing space. First selected for the craft division of Japan Fine Arts Exhibition in 1961, and then subsequently selected 21 times. Encountered a primeval forest of beech trees in Shinshu in 1973 and then made art gallery displays with themes of beech forests 28 times. Exhibited at Kofukai Exhibition 35 times. At present, borrowing the style of the Kanjoban of 8th century Horyuji, creating a 3m-high forest of giant beech trees that brims with life, and praying for human eternity. Currently an honorary member of Kofukai.