Sasajima Kihei

Sasajima Kihei ( Japanese 笹島喜平 , born 22. April 1906 in Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture ,. Died 31 May 1993 ) a Japanese woodcut artist during the was Showa period .

life and work

Sasajima Kihei was born in Mashiko, a place known for its pottery - Mashiko-yaki - and the innovator of pottery, Hamada Shōji . So Sasajima came into contact with folk art at an early age and remained loyal to it throughout his life. While Sasajima was receiving apprenticeship training in Tokyo, he also took drawing lessons. From 1927 to 1945 he worked as a teacher, but found time to study printing techniques. In 1935 he completed a course under the woodcut artist Hiratsuka Un'ichi , which inspired him to design black and white prints. In 1938 he was introduced to Munakata Shikō by Hamada , who exerted a strong influence on him. In 1940 he met Mori Yoshitoshi , who was involved in stencil printing. This year he exhibited for the first time at the “Kokuga-kai” (国画 会).

From 1945 Sasajima worked as a woodcut artist, printing mostly monochrome, occasionally also in color. In 1948 he became a member of the artists' association for woodcuts, the "Nihon Hanga Kyōkai" (日本 版画 協会), but then switched to Munakata when the latter founded the woodcut institute "Hanga-in" (版 画院) in 1952. Sasajima also gained international fame when he was seen at an exhibition of contemporary Japanese woodcuts in Yugoslavia in 1957. Also mentioned in Statler's Modern Japanese Prints. An Art Reborn , which has two prints of him, added to his reputation. After all, he was regularly seen at the "Tokyo Biennale". In 1959, Sasajima was shown in Washington with Hashimoto Okiie .

In 1959 Sasajima fell ill and lost the strength to rub the paper on the printing plate with the usual pillow. He then developed a technique of pressing the paper deep into the incisions in the plate and blackening the edges extra, creating a three-dimensional effect. From 1962 he dealt exclusively with religious topics, the sacred Mount Fuji being one of them. In the Buddhist world of gods, it was among the "Shining Kings" (明王, Myōō) the Fudō Myōō (不 動 明王), a grim figure with a sword and chain in his hands who fascinated him and which he often depicted.

Sasajima has dedicated a museum to his birthplace Mashiko as part of the Mashiko museum complex.

literature

• Oliver Statler: Sasajima Kihei . In: Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn. Tuttle, 1959. ISBN 0-8048-0406-0 .
• Smith, Lawrence: Sasajima Kihei . In: Modern Japanese Prints. 1912-1989. Cross River Press, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-871-5 .

Web links

• Sasajima pictures in the Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints
• Sasajima Museum in Mashiko

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Sasajima is the family name, Kihei the first name.