Keisuke Serizawa Explained

Keisuke Serizawa
Birth Name:Keisuke Ōishi
Birth Date:May 13, 1895
Birth Place:Shizuoka, Shizuoka
Death Place:Tokyo
Nationality:Japanese
Field:textile designer

was a Japanese textile designer. In 1956, he was designated as a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government for his katazome stencil dyeing technique. A leading member of the mingei movement founded by Yanagi Sōetsu, Serizawa visited Okinawa several times and learned the Ryūkyū bingata techniques of dyeing.[1] Chōsuke Serizawa (Archaeologist) was his son.[2]

His folk-art productions included kimono, paper prints, wall scrolls, folding screens, curtains, fans, and calendars.[3] [4] He also produced illustrated books, including Don Quixote,[5] Vincent van Gogh and A Day at Mashiko.

In 1981, the Municipal Serizawa Keisuke Art Museum was opened in the city of Shizuoka. Another museum, the Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum was opened in 1989 in Sendai. Other museums that hold his work include the Brooklyn Museum,[6] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[7] the Harvard Art Museums, the Seattle Art Museum, the British Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art,[8] and the Museum of New Zealand.[9]

"The distinguishing trait of Serizawa's katazome method is the use of the starch mixture to create, not a colored area as is current in direct-dyeing process, but a blank, undyed one that forms a part of the pattern and that can later be colored by hand in multi-color or monochrome as the designer sees fit."[10]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Joe Earle and Kim Brandt. Serizawa: Master of Japanese Textile Design (Japan Society Series). Yale University Press, 144 pag. 2009,,
  2. Web site: 日本人名大辞典+Plus,百科事典マイペディア,世界大百科事典内言及. デジタル版. 芹沢長介とは. 2021-01-11. コトバンク. ja.
  3. Web site: Serizawa Keisuke. 2021-01-08. SAMBlog. en-US.
  4. Web site: calendar; print British Museum. 2021-01-08. The British Museum. en.
  5. Web site: Harvard. From the Harvard Art Museums' collections Set of 36 Stencils for Illustrated Don Quixote (Ehon Don Kihōte). 2021-01-08. harvardartmuseums.org. en.
  6. Web site: Brooklyn Museum. 2021-01-08. www.brooklynmuseum.org.
  7. Web site: Serizawa Keisuke | Map of Traditional Rural Potteries in Present-day Japan | Japan | Shōwa period (1926–89) . 2021-01-08. www.metmuseum.org .
  8. Web site: Exchange: Calendar. 2021-01-08. exchange.umma.umich.edu.
  9. Web site: Loading... Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. 2021-01-08. collections.tepapa.govt.nz.
  10. Keisuke Serizawa, The Stencil Artist, Volume 1. Tokyo, Tsukiji Shokan Publishing Company, Ltd., distributed by the Maruzen Co., Ltd, 1967.