Taninaka Yasunori

Self-portrait, undated

Taninaka Yasunori ( Japanese 谷中 安 規 ; born January 18, 1897 in what is now the city of Sakurai in Nara Prefecture ; died September 9, 1946 ) was a Japanese woodblock print artist with an often surrealistic content, poem writer and magazine editor.

life and work

Taninaka's father moved from Nara Prefecture to Kyoto in 1902 and ran a dyeing business there. In 1904 the family moved to Korea . After returning to Japan in 1915 Taninaka attended the Buzan Middle School in Tokyo, part of the Gokoku-ji Buddhist temple , studied short poems ( tanka ) and art, and published a magazine. In 1918, ill, he gave up school without a degree. In 1919 he entered a temple as a novice, but fled after a year. In 1921 he visited his father in Korea for six months, and after his return to Tokyo lived there in a poor way.

In 1922 Taninaka visited the studio of Nagase Yoshirō (1891–1978) and learned with him the production of woodcuts. In 1924 he met the poets Hinatsu Kōnosuke and Satō Haruo through the agency of the publisher Hasegawa Minokichi (1893-1973) and published poems in the magazine “Die Zeit” ( 時間 , Jikan ).

From 1930 Taninaka also published the magazine "Schwarz und Weiß" ( 白 と 黒 , Shiro to kuro ), which appeared until 1937. In 1939 he learned etching from Sekino Junichirō (1914–1988). About Maekawa Sempan he met the art critic Ryōji Kumata (1899-1988), who encouraged him to publish a textbook on woodcut, which was then published under the title Han-gijitsu ( 版 技術 , "printing techniques"). He participated in the exhibitions of the Japanese Society for Woodcut ( 日本 版画 協会 , Nihon banga kyōkai ), produced illustrations and was involved in the founding of the Japanese Society for Illustrations ( 日本 挿 絵 画家 協会 , Nihon sashi-e gaka kyōkai ) in 1941 .

In April 1945, Taninaka's house was destroyed in a bomb attack and he built a small hut out of the rubble. He fell ill and was malnourished and was found dead in his hut on September 9 the next year.

gallery

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  "Spring Evening", 1933

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  "Butterfly in puberty". 1933

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  "8th scene from the shadow theater " (1932)

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  Ghost scene, 1932

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  "Evening", 1933

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  From the “Fantasy” collection: “Evening”, 1933

literature

• Kanagawa Kenritsu Kindai bijutsukan (Ed.): 1930-nendai no hangakatachi. Taninaka Yasunori to Fujimaki Yoshio o Chūshin toshite. Exhibition catalog 1987.

Web links

Commons : Taninaka Yasunori  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 小 倉 忠 夫 : 谷中 安 規 . In: 日本 大 百科全書 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved December 22, 2015 (Japanese). 

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