Zenzo Sakamoto, born 1911 in Kumamoto Prefecture (Kyushu), belongs to the same generation of artists like Toshinobu Onosato or Q Ei. Having studied with Kinosuke Ebihara, Sakamoto participated in the Independent Art Association. However, he remained based in Kumamoto and chose to go his own way, remaining largely out of the spotlight of artistic magnets such as Tokyo and Osaka.

Sakamoto's world of gentle abstraction based on the topography and nature of his home prefecture gained him the reputation of a "painter of greys," and the "taciturn of the East." The Zenzo Sakamoto Museum opened in 1995 in Oguni (Kumamoto), made possible by a donation of works by his family.