Background
Funakoshi Yasutake was born in Iwate Prefecture on December 7, 1912.
舟越 保武
Funakoshi Yasutake was born in Iwate Prefecture on December 7, 1912.
Funakoshi Yasutake attended middle school in Morioka where the painter Shunsuke Matsumoto was among his schoolmates. He graduated from Tokyo Fine Arts School (1939).
While in school Funakoshi Yasutake began displaying works at exhibitions of the sculpture department of Kokugakai, winning prizes (1937, 1938 and 1939). Recently has been executing statues of women that are marked by freshness and bearing names of flowers as titles. Is one of the few sculptors in marbles at the present time.
From 1958 to 1962 he created the sculptures Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan and later the Hara-no-Jo (原の城, Christian samurai). For the former sculpture he was awarded the Takamura Kōtarō Prize (高村光太郎賞受賞) and the pope bestowed the Order of St. Gregory the Great on him in 1964. For the latter sculpture he received the Nakahara-Teijirō-Prize (中原悌二郎賞) in 1972.
In addition to his work as an artist Funakoshi worked as a lecturer in his later life as well. From 1967 to 1980 he was a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts (東京藝術大学 Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku) and from 1980 to 1983 at the Tama Art University (多摩美術大学 Tama bijutsu daigaku). After his retirement in 1983 he became an honorary professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1987 he suffered a stroke, which forced him to switch to his left hand for his future art work.