Tsuguharu Foujita (Léonard Foujita, 1886 –1968) left Meiji-era Japan solely for Europe and demonstrated his talents as a representative École de Paris painter.

In his original style that combined oil painting with techniques of Japanese painting, he created many popular works, including highly acclaimed “milky white nudes” and paintings with a cat motif. He also dominated the age with his own unique looks, words, and deeds. Back in Japan, he was involved in creating war paintings during WWII, but he decisively left the Japanese art world after the war ended.

He was naturalized in France, converted to Catholicism, and lived there until he died and was buried there. Foujita led a checkered life, but his true personality and his feelings at times are still shrouded in mystery partly due to his fame and his skillful management of his own public image. This exhibition is an attempt to trace the life of Foujita and his life-long inner journey through his letters to people close to him, wooden handicrafts that he continued to make throughout his life, and works he left behind for his wife.