Yamaguchi Sōhei

Yamaguchi Sōhei 山口草平 (1882-1961) 

BIOGRAPHY

Source: Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p.170; Osaka City Library Collaborative Reference Database [accessed 3-2-24]; 中之島図書館所蔵の絵画について  鳴澤 成泰（中之島図書館）https://dl.ndl.go.jp/view/prepareDownload?itemId=info:ndljp/pid/11480766&bundleNo=1&contentNo=1 [accessed 3-2-2024]

Yamaguchi Sōhei, real name Yamaguchi Koshirō 山口光四郎, was born in Osaka on October 18, 1882. There is little information available on his life and work. Published information, tells us that he studied traditional Japanese style painting (nihonga) under the Osaka painter Nakagawa Rogetsu 中川蘆月 (1859-1924) and that after graduating from Kokugakuin University's Specialized Department in Tokyo, he continued to study painting on his own. 

As to his personal life, in 1912 he married Ōishi Junkyō 大石順A教 (1888-1968) who would gain fame for teaching herself calligraphy and painting using her mouth, after a long recovery from her step-father's rampage during which he severed her arms. They would divorce in 1927.

From 1915 to 1918  (Taisho 4), Yamaguchi exhibited at the Osaka Art Exhibition and in 1916, he received an award at the 9th Bunten (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition).

Best known for his work as an illustrator, he contributed an illustration to the sketch-tour book Kinai Angya (An Introduction to the Inner Provinces), published by Kanao Bun’endō in 1919, from around 1921 his illustrations for serialized novels began appearing in newspapers such as the "Sunday Mainichi" and "Asahi Shimbun," and from 1931 through 1937 he designed a number of illustrations for the magazine "Kamigata shumi" (上方趣味).

His earliest woodblock print is likely this collection's print "Yohei in The Oil-Hell Murder" from "Woodblock Print Supplements to the Complete Works of Chikamatsu," 1922-c. 1925. His other extant woodblock prints are the memorial portrait (shina-e) of the great kamigata stage actor Nakamura Ganjirō (1860-1935) (shown left) and this collection's print "Matahei the Stutterer in Keisei Hangonkō" from the series "Twelve Months of Chikamatsu," pictured below.

He followed his 1935 memorial print of Ganjirō with a 1936 commissioned painting of Ganjirō in his most famous role of Kamiya Jihei in Chikamatsu's "The Love Suicides at Amijima," shown right.

In 1955 he would receive the Osaka Prefectural Art Award (大阪府芸術賞).

After 1940, I can find no mention of his life or work, other than his receipt in 1955 of the Osaka Prefectural Art Award (大阪府芸術賞) and his recorded death on July 8, 1961 at the age of 79.