Kasamatsu Shirō

Kasamatsu Shirō ( Japanese 笠 松 紫 浪 ; born January 11, 1898 in Tokyo ; died June 14, 1991 ) was a Japanese painter of the Nihonga direction during the Shōwa period .

life and work

Kasamatsu Shirō was born in the Akasaka district of Tokyo and became a pupil of Kaburagi Kiyokata in 1911 , at an even earlier age than two other Tokyo artists, namely Kawase Hasui and Itō Shinsui . Kasamatsu studied painting in the Nihonga style and dealt with landscapes. It was this side of his work that attracted Watanabe Shōzaburō who commissioned him to design a print in 1919. From then on, Kasamatsu worked regularly for Watanabe until well after the end of the Pacific War .

Kasamatsu's typical cityscapes in particular were very attractive to foreigners. His print with the title "Kazumi yube - Shinobazu chihan" (霞 む 夕 べ - 不忍 池畔) from 1932 was so popular that Watanabe had to reprint it many times.

In the 1950s, Kasamatsu began to deal with the competing woodcut style Sōsaku hanga and began to make prints himself, usually in higher editions and with fewer designs than was the case with the Watanabe prints. There are only a few different prints of this type, including the series "Tōkyō kinkō Hakkei" (東京 近郊 八景) - "Eight Views of Tokyo and the Surrounding Area" from 1939. In the 1950s he also worked for the Unsōdō publishing house (芸 艸 堂) in Kyoto.

Remarks

1. ↑ The Shinobazu Pond (不忍 池, Shinobazu no ike) is located in the Taitō district of Tokyo.
2. ↑ "Eight Views of ..." in Japan go back to a set of 8 landscape images on Dongting Lake taken from China . Initially adopted in Japan as “ Eight Views of Lake Biwa ”, the theme was also applied to other places.

literature

• Smith, Lawrence: Kasamatsu Shirō . In: Modern Japanese Prints. 1912-1989. Cross River Press, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-871-5 .

Web links (images)

• Kasamatsu pictures

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Kasamatsu is the family name, Shirō the first name.