He entered in 1882 the Kagoshima Middle School, while learning brushwork techniques from Togaku Hirayama, an artist from his hometown. In 1884, Fujishima went to Tokyo, where he became a pupil of Gyokusho Kawabata and studied Japanese traditional painting. However, he later switched to Western-style painting, which he studied under Yukihiko Soyama and Hosui Yamamoto. He exhibited Cruelty under the name of Ikunosuke Shirataki, a younger classmate, at the third Meiji Art Association Exhibition in 1891. This painting garnered high praise from Ogai Mori, novelist and influential art critic. In 1893, Fujishima moved to Tsu City to take up a position as assistant instructor at Mie Prefectural Elementary School. With the firm backing of Seiki Kuroda, Fujishima became an assistant professor of the Tokyo Art School's Western Painting Department when it was established in 1896. Also in that year, he joined the White Horse Society (the Hakuba-kai), which was founded by a group of artists that included Seiki Kuroda, and exhibited his paintings at its annual exhibitions.
In 1905, Fujishima traveled to Europe and studied under Fernand Cormon at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris in France and Carolus-Duran, President of the Academie de France in Italy. Cormon's speciality was historical paintings, while Duran excelled in portraiture. On his return, in 1910, Fujishima was nominated Professor of Tokyo Art School and became a member of the Imperial Art Academy (the Teikoku Bijutsu-in), as well as a member of the jury for its exhibitions, known in abbreviations at the Tei-ten. In 1937, he received the very first Order of Culture (Bunka Kunsho), a decoration given by the Government to those who have contributed greatly to the development of art, science and other fields of culture, along with Saburosuke Okada.
By this time, he was considered an elder statesman among Western-style painting circles.
(cf : www.marubeni.com)
| Studied under Fernand-Anne Piestre (Fernand Cormon) and Charles Émile Auguste Durand (Carolus-Duran)
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