At 73, Maruki Suma Became a Painter: Shiga Museum Traces Her Journey

The Shiga Prefectural Museum of Art in Otsu is presenting an exhibition devoted to Maruki Suma (1875–1956), a Japanese painter who picked up a brush for the first time at age 73. Titled "Maruki Suma: An Artist Since Age 73," the show traces her entire creative arc, from her late start to her final works.

Open since September 11 and running through November 23, 2026, the exhibition brings together roughly 130 works and related materials, organized into nine thematic chapters. It is curated by Yamada So, with supervision from Okamoto Yukinobu of the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels and researcher Nagai Akio.

Born in 1875 in Hiroshima Prefecture, Suma spent decades doing farm work and running the family's lodging business before surviving the atomic bombing in 1945 while living about 2.5 kilometers from the epicenter. Widowed the following year, she began painting in 1948 at the urging of her son, painter Iri Maruki, and his wife, Toshi Maruki. Her depictions of vegetables, animals and everyday scenes, rendered in vivid color and loose, confident composition, quickly drew attention: from 1950 onward, her works were selected for major Japanese exhibitions, bringing her unexpected recognition late in life.

Over roughly nine years, until her death at 81, she produced more than 700 works. Long affectionately known simply as a "grandmother painter," she has since been the subject of retrospectives at several Japanese institutions and, in 2021, at the Musée Bernard Buffet in France. The current exhibition's curator seeks to move beyond that nickname to reveal the fuller complexity of her life and art, shaped by both hardship and an enduring wonder at the natural world.

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Written by the ADM desk based on 美術手帖. Read the original article for the full story.