Naoyasu Harada - Boy and Locust - Oil on Canvas c 1930s-40s P3056

Pre-war or wartime Japanese painting of immense tenderness and charm. We are very grateful to our friends for deciphering the kanji which gave us the full name of the artist and the title he gave this lovely work in the yōga, or Western style. We hoped we could find out more about this sensitive artist. He does show up as the illustrator of 4 children's books in the collection of Tokyo's National Diet Museum, each with different collaborators: Gaishi Yamagishi ("Yamata Takeru no Mikoto" 1943) , Nobu Asato ("Jinnō shōtōki" 1942), Wataru Sayama & Keiko Sayama ("Yamato Omina" 1943), and Kohan Shin'yashiki ("Kazutoyo to sono tsuma" 1943). The subjects are historical and, one can assume, patriotic. We fear he may not have survived the war. Measures 18" x 24".