Serizawa Keisuke

Serizawa Keisuke

Serizawa Keisuke ( Japanese 芹 沢 銈 介 , Kyūjitai : 芹澤 銈 介 ; born May 13, 1895 in Aoi-ku , (today: Shizuoka ) in Shizuoka Prefecture ; † April 5, 1984 ) was a Japanese dyer, artisan and father of the archaeologist Serizawa Chōsuke . He was honored as a person with special cultural merits , was declared in 1956 as a living national treasure for the important intangible cultural asset “Dyeing using the Kataezome technique” ( 型 絵 染 ) and an honorary citizen of the city of Shizuoka. He was also instrumental in the "folk art movement" ( 民 芸 運動 , Mingei Undō ) involved.

Life

Entrance to the Serizawa Keisuke Art Museum in Shizuoka

Serizawa was in 1895 as the second son of seven children of the wholesaler for kimono fabrics born Ōishi Kakujirō in Shizuoka. After graduating from Middle School in Shizuoka, he attended Tokyo Higher Technical School (now: Tokyo Technical University ), where he studied industrial design. In 1917 he married Serizawa Toyoto and changed his family name. In 1927 he read the treatise Kōgei no michi ( 工 芸 の 道 , about ways of handicrafts ) by the philosopher and founder of the folk art movement Yanagi Muneyoshi , which impressed him and which led to a lifelong exchange between the two.

In 1928 Serizawa visited an exhibition in Okinawa , where he learned the traditional dyeing technique Bingata ( 紅 型 ). In 1931 he took over the design of the cover for the magazine Kōgei ( 工藝 ), the central publication of the folk art movement. Four years later he moved into a studio in the Kamata district of Tokyo Prefecture and began to learn the Bingata coloring. From 1949 he taught at the women's art college in Suginami . In 1955 he founded a dyeing company. A year later, in April 1956, Serizawa was named "Living National Treasure" . In 1976, at the invitation of the French government, he exhibited his works in the Grand Palais in Paris. In the same year he was honored as a person with special cultural merits .

Serizawa died in 1984 at the age of 88. Further awards were the medal of honor on a violet ribbon in 1966, the Order of the Holy Treasure (4th class of merit or officer 1970 and posthumous second class of merit or grand officer 1984).

Serizawa's merit lies in the originality of the patterns, plant, animal, human and landscape motifs, which he combined with traditional techniques of handicrafts such as the Edo patterns and the katagami etc. to a peculiar Japanese style. To this end, he developed the technique of Kataezome, a technique for coloring paper in particular using stencils ( katagami ). In addition to paper and textiles, he also colored objects such as noren , bedding, glass, books, screens and calendars.

Works

• Complete edition of Serisawa's works 『芹 沢 銈 介 全集』 , ( Serizawa Keisuke Zenshu ) in 31 volumes, Chūō Kōronsha publishing house, 1980–83

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 生 い 立 ち . Serizawa Shizuoka Art Museum, accessed March 12, 2015 (Japanese). 

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Serizawa Keisuke . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1349.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Serizawa Keisuke . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .

Web links

• 静岡 市立 芹 沢 銈 介 美術館 . Serizawa Shizuoka Art Museum, 2013,accessed March 12, 2015(Japanese). 
• 芹 沢 銈 介 美術 工 芸 館 (Serizawa Keisuke - Museum of Arts and Crafts) in Sendai. Tohoku Fukushi University,accessed March 12, 2015(Japanese). 
• Collection. The Japan Folk Crafts Museum, 2015, accessed March 12, 2015 (English, with images of Serizawa's works). 

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