Yoshikawa Kampō

Yoshikawa Kampō ( Japanese 吉川 観 方 , real name: Yoshikawa Kenjirō (吉川 賢 次郎); born 1894 in Kyoto ; died April 16, 1979 ) was a Japanese woodblock print artist and author during the Shōwa period .

life and work

Yoshikawa Kampō was born in Kyoto, Higashiyama District , and lived in Kyoto all his life. He studied from 1914 to 1918 painting in the Nihonga style at the "Kyōto shiritsu kaiga semmon gakkō" (京都 市立 絵 画 専 門 学校) under Irie Hakō and Tsuchida Bakusen . Already during his apprenticeship he was able to show one picture, namely “Butai no kage” (舞台 の か げ) - “In the shadow of the stage”, at the 11th colorful exhibition.

After completing his training in 1918, he went to the film and theater company "Shōchiku gomei kaisha" (松竹 合 名 会 社) and worked there as a consultant for stage designs. In 1923 he was able to publish a collection of prints under the title "Kampō Sōsaku Hanga-shū" (観 方 創作 版 画集) with the publisher Satō Shōtarō (佐藤 章 太郎). In 1925 he opened an exhibition for the "creative woodcut" (創作 版画, Sōsaku hanga ) together with Miki Suizan .

In 1934 Yoshikawa completed the establishment of a printing workshop in his house and was able to win Uemura Shōen and other artists for contributions. It was the time when exhibitions of contemporary folk art were mainly held in the department stores. In 1936 Yoshikawa left Shōchiku, in 1940 his book “Nisenroppyakunen fūzokuzu shi” (二千 六百 風俗 図 史) - “2600 years of history of folk art”, so in keeping with the 2600 anniversary of the Japanese empire.

In 1948 Yoshikawa became friends with the owner of a department store in Ōita and made many drawings for him. In 1954 he was appointed artistic director (繪 所 預, Edokoro azukari) of the Kasuga Shrine . In summary, it can be said that Yoshikawa in his prints cannot be consistently assigned to the Nihonga direction, as is the case with artists such as Yamamura Kōka and Natori Shunsen who work for Watanabe Shōzaburō in Tokyo .

Remarks

1. ↑ "Bunten" (文 展) stands for Mombushō bijutsu tenrankai (文部省 美術展 覧 会), an annual exhibition of the Ministry of Culture.
2. ↑ "Shōchiku gomei kaisha" is the forerunner of today's Shōchiku . In the early years she also engaged in theater and kabuki .

literature

• Okamoto, Hiromi et al. a .: Yoshikawa Kampō. In: Kindai Nihon hanga no mikata. Tokyo Bijjutsuin, 2004. ISBN 4-8087-0751-9 .
• Smith, Lawrence: Yoshikawa Kampō . In: Modern Japanese Prints. 1912-1989. Cross River Press, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-871-5 .

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