Hiroshi Onishi

Hiroshi Onishi (1961–2011) was a Japanese painter and associate professor of Oil Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he graduated in 1989. Seeking influences beyond Japan, he studied European academic painting and spent five years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. There he deepened his lifelong fascination with Northern Renaissance art, reflected in early self-portraits inspired by Jan van Eyck.
Although shaped by Western academic and abstract art, Onishi ultimately returned to Japanese artistic traditions and the philosophies of Shinto and Zen. His work shifted toward minimalism and the use of “yohaku” (empty space), first visible in his “Waterscapes” series (1996–97), in which he painted delicate mountain and water motifs on layered, hand-cut washi structures.
After returning to Japan in 1998, Onishi developed a glazing technique using aqueous emulsions instead of drying oils, creating veiled tones reminiscent of Meiji-era painting. His artistic breakthrough came in 2002 after encountering lapis lazuli during a research trip to Kabul. Using Cennino Cennini’s 14th-century recipe and the natural-pigment tradition of nihonga, he extracted 16 shades of blue from the stone, becoming the first Japanese painter to use lapis lazuli in this way.
Onishi’s later work, centered on water and aquatic life, reflects the Buddhist concept of sunyata (emptiness). The luminosity of the lapis blues deepens these meditative waterscapes. Though personally open and talkative, his art remains quietly mysterious, shaped by his contemplative observation of nature as a devoted fisherman.

Submitted by Lechbinska Gallery