Asada Benji

Asada Benji ( Japanese 麻田 辨 自 , real first name at the same reading: 辨 次 ; December 14, 1900 , born in Kameoka - October 29, 1984 ) was a Japanese painter and woodcut artist.

life and work

Asada studied from 1918 at the Municipal School for Arts and Crafts ( 京都 市立 美術 工 芸 学校 , Kyōto shiritsu bijutsu kōgei gakkō ) and at the Municipal Art College of Kyoto ( 京都 市立 絵 画 専 門 大学 , Kyōto shiritsu kaiga semmon of the eryaku 1924) Graduated. During his training, a picture of him was accepted under the real name Nakanishi Benji at the 3rd National Exhibition "Teiten".

Asada came into contact with the Sōsakuhanga movement and published in the magazine "Drucke" ( 版 , Han ), together with his fellow artist Tokuriki Tomikichirō (1902-2000) , who was also from Kyoto . From 1929 he took painting lessons in Nihonga style with Nishimura Goun (1877–1938).

Asada was, together with Tokuriki, Asano Takeji u. a., co-founder of the "Association for Creative Prints Kyoto" ( 京都 創作 版画 協会 , Kyōto sōsaku hanga kyōkai ). In 1932 he became a member of the "Japanese Society for Printing" ( 日本 版画 協会 , Nihon hanga kyōkai ) and participated in the series "One Hundred New Views on Japan" ( 新 日本 百 風景 , Shin Nihon hyaku fūkei ). With Tokuriki and Asano he published a series of twelve sheets from 1933 to 1934 under the title “New Views on Kyōto” ( 新 京都 風景 , Shin Kyōto fūkei ), an answer to the Tokyo-dominated world of creative prints.

After 1945 Asada only worked as a painter in the Nihonga style, influenced by his college friend under Goun, Yamaguchi Kayō , whereby pictures of "flowers and birds" ( 花鳥画 , kachō-ga ) became his main subject. In 1965 he was awarded the Japanese Academy of Arts Prize for his work "Shiosai" ( 潮 騒 ) .

Remarks

1. ↑ Teiten ( 帝 展 ) was the abbreviation for the state art exhibition that took place annually in Tokyo between 1919 and 1935 under the name Teikoku tenrankai ( 帝国 美術 院 展 覧 会 ).

Web links

Image selection

literature

• Smith, Lawrence: Modern Japanese Prints. 1912-1989. Cross River Press, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-871-5 .
• Merrit, Helen: Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints. The Early Years. University of Hawaii Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8248-1200-X .