Itō Shinsui

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Itō Shinsui

Itō Shinsui ( Japanese 伊 東 深水 ; * February 4, 1898 in Fukagawa , Tokyo (today Kōtō ); † May 8, 1972 , real name Hajime ( 一 )) was a Japanese painter and woodcut artist of the Shin-hanga direction.

life and work

Itō was born in the Fukagawa district of Tokyo, on the eastern side of the Sumida River . He left school in 1906 to support his parents by working in a billboard workshop. From 1908 he worked in the nearby workshop of the Tōkyō Insatsu KK printing company , in which movable metal letters were produced. In 1911 he was transferred to the design department at the headquarters. It was at this time that he began to be interested in art, engaged in painting in the Nihonga style, and trained in general.

The Nihonga artist Yūki Somei (1875-1957), who worked in the printing company, introduced him to the Ukiyoe artist Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1972), who took Itō in 1911 as a student. As a stage name ( gō ) Ito combined the fuka (i) ( 深 ) from the district name. Sino-Japanese shin , with the modification of a character from the first name of his teacher Kiyokata, the kiyo to "clear water" ( sui ) to Shinsui. From that time on he made his living with illustration, an occupation that he carried on all his life, although it faded into the background after he became known as a painter. Itō already won a prize in 1912 at the Tatsumi Gakai ( 辰 巳 Ausstellung 会 ) exhibition, in 1914 at the first exhibition of the Nihon Bijutsuin (English Japan Art Institute ), in 1915 at the exhibition of the Ministry of Culture, the Mombushō Bijutsu Tenrankai ( 文部省 美術展 覧 会 ).

In 1916, the art dealer and publisher Watanabe Shōsaburō (1885–1962) became aware of Itō when he saw his painting "In Front of the Mirror". With Kaburagi's consent, Watanabe commissioned Itō to provide a template for a print of this painting, which was then published in 1916. From that point on until Watanabe's death, the two worked together. - The prints based on Itō's template include more than 60 landscapes, including the classic theme of the " Eight Views of Lake Biwa ", which Itō designed as one of the last artists. Around 100 other prints are added to the landscapes, mostly of beautiful women ( bijinga ). Itō continued to work as a painter all his life, especially after he founded his school Shinsui Gajuku ( 深水 画 塾 ) in 1927 . This was moved to the Ōmori district in 1930 and renamed the “School of the Clear Summit” ( 朗 峯 画 塾 , Rōhō gajuku ). The school attracted many students who formed the next generation of painters of beautiful women.

Itō founded various societies, including in 1932 the Seisei-kai ( 青 々 会 ), which represented realism in portrait painting, and, together with Yamakawa Shūhō (1898–1944), the Seikin-kai ( 青衿 会 ), which pursued similar goals . In America, Itō became known through the two exhibitions in the Toledo Museum of Art in 1930 and 1936 , on which Shin-hanga woodcuts by ten Japanese artists, including Itō, Kawase Hasui and Hashiguchi Goyō , were shown. Even Isabella Gardner was interested in the painters, invited her to Boston and acquired works from them for their museum . On the return trip from the 1930 exhibition, the group of artists also came to Berlin in early 1931, where a highly acclaimed exhibition was held at the Prussian Academy of Arts under the title Exhibition of Works by Living Japanese Artists . After 1937 Itō again turned to more prints of landscapes, the "Twelve Views of Ōshima" are among them. In 1939 he traveled to China to paint, from 1943 he worked there as the official painter of the Japanese Navy. There are prints with scenes from Borneo , Celebes and Java from that time. Towards the end of the war he retired to Nagano Prefecture (formerly Shinano Province ), and in 1948 published the "Ten Views of Shinano".

Towards the end of his life, Itō only created a few templates for prints. One of them, “Washing your hair” ( 髪 , kami ; 1957), was published by the Japanese government on the occasion of his appointment in 1952 as the custodian of an intangible cultural asset. In 1958 he became a member of the Academy of Arts and in 1970 he received the Order of the Rising Sun . In the ukiyo-e tradition, Itō's beautiful women rarely show individual traits. A notable exception is the portrait from 1922 by the artist Elizabeth Keith (1887–1956), who lived in Japan from 1915 to 1924.

Remarks

  1. ↑ From this print all 10 intermediate stages up to the finished print are known.
  2. ↑ Corresponds to today's appointment to the Living National Treasure .

literature

  • Lawrence Smith: Modern Japanese Prints (1912-1989). Cross River Press, New York. 1994. ISBN 1-55859-871-5 .
  • Hirazawa, Kanzō u. a. (Ed.): Catalog of All the Woodblock Prints of Shinsui ITŌ. The Folk Museum of Ōta Borough, 1993.

Web links

Commons : Ito Shinsui  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Itō, Shinsui
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 伊 東 深水 (Japanese); Itō, Hajime (real name); 伊 東 一 (Japanese, real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese painter and woodcut artist of the Shin-hanga direction
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Fukagawa , Tokyo (today Kōtō )
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1972
Place of death Tokyo