Shigeru Aoki: Life and Legacy Early Life and Training Born: July 13, 1882, in Shojima-machi Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Aoki came from an ex-samurai class family, with his father serving the Arima clan. Parallel Beginnings: He was a childhood friend and classmate of Hanjiro Sakamoto, another prominent Japanese Western-style painter. Both initially studied under Miyoshi Mori in Kurume. Despite family disapproval, Aoki left home in 1899 to pursue art studies in Tokyo. He first trained with Koyama Shōtarō, a pupil of the Italian artist Antonio Fontanesi, learning Western oil p…