Sotaro Takanami

Biography

1949 Born in Tokyo, Japan. 1973 Graduated from Tama Art University, Department of Oil Painting. 1986 The Française Collection released a woodcut print book “Nature” in Tokyo and Paris at the same time. 1990~ I had held more than 100 solo exhibitions at Takashimaya department 2024 store art galleries nationwide. I had many time solo exhibitions at galleries throughout Japan.

2004 Exhibition of the original Twelve Monkey Haiku woodcut prints at Gallery Yoshii (Paris). Twelve Monkey Haiku published by RMN (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, France). Twelve Monkey Haiku appeared in the Louvre and major bookstores in France. Invited by President Chirac to a supper at the Élysée Palace. 2010 The Sasakawa Peace Foundation publishes “THE BEGINNING OF SPACE” for the Middle East. Created design of sumo wrestler’s ornamental apron for Yokozuna Hakuho. 2024 Two-month Special solo exhibition at Takashimaya Archives: “Takanami Sotaro: A Devotion to Painting.”

I had exhibited many exhibitions in various parts of the world. (USA Paris, Monaco, Austria, Cannes, Switzerland, Germany. 2025 Published Art Celebrity Magazine and Art Celebrity Editorial. (Spain) Published in ARTRO Magazine. (Spain)

Due to anxiety from childhood, I fell ill around age 13, but somehow overcame it. During adolescence, I felt friendship, respect, intense love, music, aesthetics, passionate darkness, anxiety, illness, death, conflict, anger, and God. Every day brought new discoveries, and it was a time of freedom, happiness, and happiness.

As time flowed like wind pushing clouds, I realized that those moments were unique to that time—my youth. Since then, while being haunted by memories of those enjoyable times, I have continued to paint. Even if I paint a hundred or a thousand pieces, each one surpasses past memories and gives me a sense of a new, first-time experience and a zest for life.

For me, painting is like water in a desert, quenching my thirst under the scorching sun. Whether I live to paint or paint to live, I constantly ask myself. The mysteries within my paintings are ones I probably won't solve even if I live for another hundred years.

With the little time left in my life, I hope to get even a little closer to that answer, so I pick up my brush at a set time every day to quench my thirst for unknown origins.

Sotaro Takanami Official

botanical garden, Oil on Canvas, 53×73cm

Self Portrait, Oil on Canvas,46×38cm

Record of Youth, oil on canvas, 61×50cm

Proclamation, Oil on Canvas, 33×24cm

Field flowers, Oil on Canvas, 46×33cm

Chloranthus and Spear flowers, Oil onCanvas,73×91cm

Asiatic Dayflower, Oil on Canvas, 73×91cm

Asiatic Dayflower, Oil on Canvas, 73×91cm

Bamboo, Oil on Canvas, 65×53cm

Viva Espana!, Collage Cardboard, oil, 89×70cm