Biographies
Here are the biographies of some of the artists named in this website. The main sources for these biographies are two books from Helen Merritt: "Modern Japanese woodblock prints: The early years" and "Guide to modern Japanese woodblock prints: 1900-1975", both published by University of Hawai Press. Other sources are the websites Hanga.com et Artelino.com. Hanga.com is an American gallery with a nice collection of 20th century prints. Artelino.com is a online auction site in Germany, specialized in Japanese prints. Both sites have very good archives, artists biographies and catalogs.
Note: The biographies of Eisen and Hiroshige are at the page "The 69 Stations".
Asano Takeji (1900-1999)
Asano Takeji was born in Kyoto in 1900. He graduated from the Kyoto City School of Fine Arts and Crafts in 1919 and from the Kyoto Municipal College of Painting in 1923, where he had Tsuchida Bakusen as teacher and Tokuriki Tomikichiro as fellow student.
In 1930, he participated to the series Sosaku hanga shin Kyoto junigatsu (Creative prints of twelve months in new Kyoto, together with other artists like Asada Benji or Tokuriki Tomikichiro. He focused on landscape prints and did several series with the Osaka & Kyoto regions as main subject.
In 1947, he realised a nice series which he carved and printed himself: Kinki meisho fukei (famous views of the Osake-Kyoto area). From late 1940 to late 1950, he worked with the publisher Unsodo on numerous Shin-hanga style landscape prints (see catalogue below). He then did many landscapes in Sosaku-hanga style with views of Japan famous spots, mountains, capes, harbors, lakes,... In the Sosaku-hanga style (creative prints), the artist does his own carving and printing, thus fully in charge of the creation process. In 1970's and 1980's, he worked on simple, humoristic, black & white prints. He taught carving and painting until 1997 and painted until his last days in 1999.
Dave Bull (1951 - )
Born in Vancouver, Canada and living in Japan for many years, David Bull started learning woodblock print techniques at Yoshida Studio with Yoshida Toshi. But he left after a few months and started his own series "Hyakunin Isshu" or 100 portraits of poets, which kept him busy for ten years and met with success in Japan. He then made five series of Surimono (albums with ten reproductions of deluxe prints) and several series on different subjects (Hanga Tresure Chest, Beauties of four seasons, My Solitudes,...) and other prints to demonstrate the technical aspects of carving and printing. See www.woodblock.com for a full overview. He has now created a workshop training young printers and started two new series, a traditional one named "Art of Japan" and other based on popular manga with designer Jed Henry (See http://www.ukiyoeheroes.com/)
David is arguably today's best Japanese print carver.
Dave Bull with Serge Astieres (Ome-shi, May 2012)
Kasamatsu Shiro (1898-1991)
Shiro Kasamatsu was born in Asakusa, a middle-class neighbourhood in Tokyo. He started drawing at a young age and in 1911 joined the studio of Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1973), known for his Bijin-ga style (portraits of nice-looking women) and Nihon-ga paintings, paintings in Japanese style. Shiro started by Japanese style landscapes and was given his artist name Shiro by his master. He participated in exhibitions and was rapidly noticed by Watanabe Shosaburo who asked the young artist to prepare drawings for woodblock prints. This collaboration started in 1919 and lasted until end 1930's with Shiro creating over 50 prints for Watanabe, mostly landscapes, Noh theater masks and interiors scenes. The print Shinobazu pond was so popular that it was reprinted several times with several color combinations, notably the blue version (Aozuri-e). Shiro used Hiroshige style composition with something in the foreground like a tree branch which would attract the viewer and give depth to the print.In 1939, he started a series "8 views of Tokyo", but only 4 prints were published, most probably due to the worsening of his relationship with Watanabe. He did a series on the same theme in 1953 for publishing house Unsodo. Kasamatsu wanted to experiment with Sosaku-hanga (Creative prints) where the artist has more freedom. He draws, carves the blocks and prints himself. Watanabe did not accept this and was strict with his artists. So after the war, Shiro stopped working for Watanabe and worked for Unsodo for whom he created over 100 prints until 1960. All the prints of the Unsodo period are in the Shin-hanga style, most of them landscapes. The best prints are the ones with snow and the ones in light and shadow. At the same time, Shiro started working in the Sosaku-hanga style, something less refined, more direct. He did nearly 80 prints, self published sold in few numbers until 1970.
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)
Kawase Bunjiro was born in Tokyo in 1883. His family had a haberdasher shop. His mother pushed him to express his artistic talent, as she was herself the daughter of a skilled craftman and the sister of a well known author, Kanagaki Robun. The family went often to theaters and mingled with actors and this had a lasting influence on the young Bunjiro. He had a weak constitution and went often to his aunt's house at Shiobara in the countryside. This is a place which he painted several times, especially during the war as he fled Tokyo.
He started to study drawing with the artist Aoyagi Bokusen, then painting with Araki Kanyu. But his fatther asked him to start work in the family shop and he had to obey. But business did not go well, his brother-in-law took over the shop and Bunjiro resumed his artistic career. He then studied Western-style painting with Okada Saburosuke et Japanese style painting with Kaburagi Kiyokata. Kaburagi gave him his artist name Hasui.
The publisher Watanabe Shosaburo was looking for young artists to make prints for export and with Kaburagi's approval, he approached Hasui. Upon his next trip to Shiobara, Hasui did 4 drawings which were published by Watanabe in 1919. Hasui was not a Watanabe employee. He was paid by the drawing, accepted commissions and sold his aquarelles. His sketchbooks, the blocks and Watanabe's shop were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake (September 1923). Watanabe paid for several trips around Japan to get new sketches and drawing for prints. But Hasui worked also for other publishers (Kawaguchi, Doi, Shobido), mostly for financial reasons.
Hasui did 620 prints until his death in 1957. The largest part are landscape prints and the most beautiful are the ones with snow, especially the ones published by Sakai & Kawaguchi (Watanabe has acquired the blocks and do the reprints)
Nishijima Katsuyuki (1945 - )
Born in 1945 in Yamaguch Prefecture, he studied Western style painting at Mikumo Publishers in Tokyo between 1964 and 1968. He started exhibiting in private galleries and participated in the Independent Artists Exhibition in Kyoto from 1965 to 1970. In 1972, he started woodblock printing and specialized in landscape prints, with old houses, shops, and narrow streets. He uses strong colors and thick lines with well marked contours. His prints are usually void of people and modern objects such as cars. Medium-sized prints will have a 500 copies run and large ones have a 100 copies run, all are hand signed.
Noël Nouët (1885-1969)
Noël Nouët was born in Brittany, France in 1885. His mother had a few ukiyo-e prints given by a close friend who had been consul in Japan and this, according to Nouët had a huge influence on him. At 25, he went to study in Paris and met with several Japanese artists. In 1926, he went as teacher to Shizuoka for one year and went back to Japan in 1930 as French teacher in Tokyo’s Foreign Language School.This is when he started to draw in Kanda, Ginza and around downtown Tokyo, looking for the spots from Hiroshige’s prints. His drawings were published in several newspapers and published in books “Tokyo seen by a foreigner” (2 vol. 1934-1935, Japan Times ed.) and Tokyo, old city, modern capital (Maison Franco-Japonaise, 1938). Some of these drawings were transformed as woodblock prints by the publisher Doi in 1936-1938. The series 10 views of Tokyo is still printed and sold today. He then became the Director of the Franco-Japanese House in Tokyo and stayed in Tokyo during the war. His house was destroyed during the 1945 bombings. In 1946 and 1948, he published small books of sketches showing the destructed Tokyo, the extensive damages and the recovery. In 1951, he became the private tutor for French to the Prince, present-day emperor and taught in several universities (Waseda University, Tokyo University,..). He came back to France in the early 1960s.
Noël Nouët sketching in Tokyo in 1932
Noël Nouët
Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950)
Yoshida Hiroshi was born in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture. He was the second son of a schoolteacher of samurai origin named Ueda Tsukane. He studied drawing with Yoshida Kasaburo who adopted him in 1891 and gave him his name. In 1893, he goes to Kyoto to study painting and in 1894, he goes to Tokyo and attend the Meiji Arts Society and follows Koyama Shotaro’s private lessons. In both cases, he studied Western-style painting. In 1899-1901, he travelled to USA and Europe and started selling some watercolors. In 1902, he reorganized the Meiji Arts Society renamed Pacific Painting Association (Taiheiyo-Gaikai). From 1903 till 1907 he travelled to Europe, North Africa and North America with his step-sister Fujio (1887-1987). Fujio was also a painter and they got married upon their return to Japan in 1907. They created a studio and were successful selling paintings in the Western style. However they were often in conflict with the traditional Japanese art groups.
In 1920, Yoshida began to work for Watanabe who was looking for a western style artist. But all the blocks and prints were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake in Sept.1923. Yoshida went to the US to collect money for the victims and he realized there that his prints were much in demand. Upon his return to Japan, he created his own print studio.
From 1925 onwards, Yoshida worked only on prints, mastering all stages of creation to the highest quality standards. Most of his prints were landscapes, inspired by his travels (India in 1930, China and Korea in 1936). In 1938, he was nominated official war artist and went several times to China. He was instrumental in organizing the two Toledo (OH) exhibitions in 1930* and 1936 which opened the American market to Japanese artists. In 1939, he published a book in English on printing technique (Japanese Woodblock Printing, ed.Sanseido), still very much in demand today. In 1946 he did his last woodblock and then returned to oil painting. In 1950, he fell ill during a trip to Izu and died in Tokyo later in the year.
For his prints, Hiroshi compared himself to a conductor or an architect, controlling production at each stage. He was saying that he needed to be more skilled than the craftsmen he was employing to be able to judge the quality of the work they produced. He worked mainly with 2 carvers, Yamanishi Kazue, then Maeda Yujiro who did most of his blocks. He worked with many printers, constantly trying new techniques. But he would only apply his seal when he was satisfied with the final quality of the work and everything was perfect.
Yoshida Toshi (1915-1991)
Yoshida Toshi is the eldest son of Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) who started to teach him painting when he was 14. But he was already familiar with woodblock print techniques, being in contact with the craftsmen in his father’s studio. He got sick with polio which left him with one leg paralyzed and he could not play with other kids. He spent a solitary childhood drawing and sketching. His mother Fujio was also an artist, but he was more under his father’s influence. Yoshida Hiroshi had participated in the founding of the Pacific ocean Painting Association (Taiheiyo-Gakai) and Toshi studied there from 1932 till 1935. He travelled a lot around the world with his father, then alone in North America, Mexico and Africa. When he came back, he worked with his father in the family studio and took over when his father passed away in 1950.
His first prints are very close to his father’s style and he went on in this naturalistic trend until 1950. In 1952, he started to work alone on abstract works, large prints in the sosaku-hanga style. He realized nearly 300 abstract prints until the 1970’s. As Toshi said himself (in Oliver Stadler book – Modern Japanese prints, an art reborn, Tuttle ed. 1959): “From these paintings, it was an easy - I suppose inevitable - step to abstraction, but it was a step my father could never approve. Still I could not ignore the movements of the times and I began to break away from my former realistic approach two or three years after the war." It was really the rupture with the father's figure. He went on to make several marine prints stating " my father painted mountains, so I went for the sea".
In the 1960’s he went back to a more realistic style, with animals and African landscapes. In the 1980’s, he illustrated several books for children on the African wildlife (Dobutsu ehon shirizu). In 1996, he published a book with Yuki Rei on woodblock printing techniques “Japanese Print Making : A handbook of traditional and modern techniques” who had a lasting influence on many artists and is still today a major reference.
Yoshida Toshi died in 1995 after a long illness. While sick, he went on managing the studio and supervising printing. Prints from this period do not bear his penciled signature, but a stamped signature.
