Makoto Takada
Western style painter
Makoto Takada (24 September 1913 - 24 October 1992) was a Western-style painter from Saitama Prefecture and a distinguished cultural figure. He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure. He is known as a representative of Urawa painters.
He was born into the Takada family, an old family known as doctors for generations in Tokiwa-machi, Urawa-machi (later Urawa City, now Saitama City), Saitama Prefecture. His father, Genpachi Takada, was a doctor and a member of the prefectural assembly of the Democratic Party. His elder brother is Susumu Takada, who was a doctor, president of the Urawa Medical Association, president of the Saitama Obstetricians and Gynecologists Association, and a member of the Urawa Board of Education, and his younger brother is Hiroshi Saito, who was president of Saito Kogyo Co. He made his first oil paintings when he was in the fifth and sixth grades at the primary schools attached to Saitama Boys' Normal School. At Urawa Junior High School (now Saitama Prefectural Urawa Senior High School), he studied under his former teacher Mitsuo Fukushuku, who recommended him to Yasushi Atomi and Kiichi Soma. Also in the art club was Masuda Mitsuo. In his fourth year at Ura Junior High School, at the age of 16, his painting "Urawa Landscape" was selected for the Nika Exhibition for the first time. In 1930, through a letter of introduction from a friend of his father, he studied under Sotaro Yasui, a leading figure in the Nika-kai. He was awarded the Japan Art Academy Prize in 1972, and in 1978 he was appointed a member of the Japan Art Academy. Many of his works are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama.