Terashima Shimei

Terashima Shimei (寺島紫明, 1892–1975) was a Japanese nihonga painter, remembered above all for his bijin-ga — pictures of beautiful women, and especially of Kyoto maiko. He was born on 8 November 1892 in Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture, and died on 12 January 1975 at the age of 83.

In 1913, in his early twenties, Terashima entered the studio of Kaburaki Kiyokata, the leading Tokyo master of modern bijin-ga, and it was under Kiyokata that he developed the refined, introspective treatment of feminine subjects for which he became known. Among Kiyokata's many pupils he was often set beside Itō Shinsui: where Shinsui was associated with the 'east,' Terashima came to be regarded as the representative of the 'west,' cultivating a distinctive manner of bijin-ga that reached toward the inner life of its subjects.

Terashima exhibited through the official salon system, showing at the Teiten and Bunten government exhibitions; at the fourth Shin-Bunten in 1941 his work 'Sunryō' (寸涼) received a special selection, and after the war he continued to exhibit for many years at the Nitten. His standing was recognized late in life with the Japan Art Academy's Enshi (Imperial Gift) Prize in 1970 and the Fourth Class Order of the Rising Sun in 1971. His paintings are held in Japanese public collections, including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the Nishinomiya Otani Memorial Art Museum, and a number of his maiko and bijin-ga compositions were also issued as woodblock prints.