RYOGA KATSUMA    勝間陵賀

 

1979 bron in Kochi, Japan

 

 

Katsuma’s career as an artist started on the streets of Osaka. He felt sick of boring country life, and he had run away from his home in Katashima Island, Kochi. At that time, he was a teenager, and started to live on the streets of Osaka as a homeless person. He had no money to buy food, but tried to think hard about how to get money and survive. As a result, he bought a pen and notebook, and started to draw the portraits of passersby. At first, his drawings were awful, but people liked Katsuma’s funny character, and started to buy his drawings and give him food. He started to enjoy drawing, and started to think about becoming a professional painter. This is the anecdote about why Katsuma started his career as a professional painter.