Masayuki Nagare

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Sakimori (Frontier Guardian), black granite sculpture by Masayuki Nagare, 1989, Honolulu Academy of Arts

Masayuki Nagare (流政之 1923- ) is a modernist Japanese sculptor who has the nickname Samurai Artist. In 1923, he was born in Nagasaki, Nagasaki as a son of Kojuro Nakagawa who established Ritsumeikan University. As a teenager, he lived in several temples in Kyoto where he studied the patterns of rocks, plants and water created by traditional landscape artists. In 1942, he went on to Ritsumeikan University where he studied Shintoism and sword-making, but he left before graduation. Afterwards, he entered the naval forces preliminary school, and experienced the end of Pacific War as Zero Fighter pilot. After Pacific War, he learned sculpture by self-study while roaming the world. Nagare's works include "Cloud Fortress" destroyed at the World Trade Center (New York City), "Sakimori" (Frontier Guardian) installed in a courtyard at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, “Hamaritsurin Garden” in Seto Ohashi Commemorative Park, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan and "Ju"(受) stored to Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and "Transcendence" (informally called "The Banker's Heart" by locals) installed in A.P. Giannini Plaza at 555 California Street (formerly the Bank of America building) in San Francisco, California.