THE SAISON FOUNDATION » Seiji Tsutsumi Chronology

Seiji Tsutsumi Chronology

Chronology of Seiji Tsutsumi/Takashi Tsujii

1927	Born in Mitaka, Tokyo on March 30
1951	Appointed as President of Kunitachi Gakuen School
1954	Enters Seibu Department Stores, Ltd. (SDS)
1955	Publishes his first anthology of poems titled Futashkana Asa (An Uncertain Morning) under the pen name Takashi Tsujii
1961	Organizes an art exhibition of Paul Klee’s works at SDS’s Ikebukuro store
1962	Takanawa Art Museum opens in Tokyo
1971	Tsutsumi is awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Legion d’Honneur from the French Republic
1973	Parco shopping center and Seibu Theater (later renamed as Parco Theater) opens in Shibuya, Tokyo
1975	The Seibu Museum of Art, Libro bookstore, and Art Vivant (a store that specializing in art books and records) opens at SDS’s Ikebukuro store
1978	Tsutsumi becomes a trustee of the International Council of The Museum of Modern Art of New York
1979	Ikebukuro Community College (culture school) and a multi-use space Studio 200 opens at SDS’s Ikebukuro store
1981	Takanawa Art Museum is transferred to Karuizawa in Nagano prefecture and becomes a museum of modern art Establishment of the convenience store chain Family Mart
1983	Seiyu opens the first Muji store in Aoyama, Tokyo (now operated by Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd.) Seibu Credit Co., Ltd. (now known as Credit Saison Co., Ltd.) launches its Saison Card full-scale Roppongi WAVE, a building housing a store selling records, CDs, and videos and a cinema called Cine Vivant, opens in Roppongi, Tokyo The Saison Group donates two million U.S. dollars to the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) of New York
1984	SDS’s Yurakucho Seibu, which houses Yurakucho Art Forum, opens in Tokyo Seibu Art Forum opens in SDS’s Ikebukuro store
1985	Seibu Retailing Group is renamed as the Seibu Saison Group
1986	Takanawa Art Museum (now known as Sezon Museum of Modern Art) is registered as a foundation SEED Hall opens in SDS’s Shibuya store in Tokyo

At his home library

1987	Seiji Tsutsumi establishes The Saison Foundation with his personal funds and becomes its president Tsutsumi is awarded the Officier de l’Ordre de la Legion d’Honneur from the French Republic
1988	Yatsugatake Music Hall opens in Nagano prefecture
1989	Sezon Art Museum opens in Ikebukuro Tsutsumi is awarded the Commander’s Cross 1st Class for Service to the Republic of Austria
1990	Seibu Saison Group is renamed as the Saison Group
1991	Tsutsumi announces his retirement as Representative of the Saison Group Takanawa Art Museum is renamed as Sezon Museum of Modern Art
1993	Tsutsumi becomes Honorable Doctor of Moscow State University
1994	The Saison Foundation opens Morishita Studio, a building with rehearsal facilities for theater and dance, in Tokyo

1998	Tsutsumi receives a doctorate in economics from Chuo University for his 1996 thesis Blueprint for Change – Beyond the Distribution Theory
2003	The Saison Foundation receives the 2003 Mecenat Award for Leading the Theatrical Arts from the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts
2007	Takashi Tsujii is inducted into the Japan Art Academy
2009	The Saison Foundation receives the Donald Keene Prize for the Promotion of Japanese Culture
2012	Serves as meshiudo, the person who composes a poem by special order of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, at the Imperial New Year’s Poetry Reading Tsutsumi receives the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Award from the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Tsujii is selected as Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese government
2013	Dies in Tokyo on November 25

The Saison Foundation extends its sincere gratitude to the following Legal Entity Support members and for their generous contributions (as of March 2023/in alphabetical order):

(Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd.)