Tsuneshi Suzuki (1930-2000)

Born in Shizuoka, Tsuneshi Suzuki was the first son of Shinobu Suzuki, who established Pola in 1930 as a firm engaged in the research, manufacturing, and sales of cosmetics. After graduating from university, Tsuneshi moved to the U.S. to study business management, but was forced to return to Japan seven months later due to his father’s sudden death. For the next approximately 40 years, he served as the director of Pola.

In 1976, Suzuki established the Pola Research Institute of Beauty & Culture as an incorporated foundation (now, a public interest incorporated foundation). He also served as the company’s director based on the corporate philosophy of conducting business activities centering on health and beauty in order to contribute to the advancement of culture, and create a prosperous and peaceful society. Suzuki was also moving ahead a project to build a museum that would house his personal collection of art, but he died in 2000 prior to its opening.

When Suzuki started collecting art, he acquired modern yoga (Western-style paintings by Japanese artists) and French contemporary paintings. Then, after having an opportunity to show a portion of his collection in Shizuoka in the late 1980s, he came up with the idea of building his own museum. From that point, Suzuki began collecting Impressionist and 20th-century Western paintings as well as large-format paintings. Without relying on the advice of a specialist, Suzuki taught himself about art by reading treatises on the subject. Through the application of this knowledge, he systematically amassed a collection of Western painting, making it possible to trace the history of Western and Japanese art through the 19th and 20th centuries.