Suda Kokuta（須田剋太）

Suda Kokuta (1906–1990), born in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, was a Western-style painter known for his vigorous brushwork and highly expressive, life-filled visual language. Although he devoted much of his career to figurative painting across various media, he also explored abstract painting during the 1950s. Through his exchanges with the avant-garde calligraphy journal Bokubi《墨美》 and members of Bokujinkai《墨人會》, Suda gradually developed a deep interest in calligraphy. Approaching the medium from the perspective of a modern artist and guided by his own distinctive theories of form, he pursued innovative modes of expression, producing a large body of calligraphic works that can also be understood as forms of abstract painting.