Shiro Kasamatsu Explained

was a Japanese engraver and print maker trained in the Shin-Hanga and Sōsaku-Hanga styles of woodblock printing.

Kasamatsu was born in Tokyo in 1898 and apprenticed at the age of 13 to Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878–1973), a traditional master of Bijin-ga, pictures of beautiful women. Kasamatsu however took an interest in landscape and was given the pseudonym Shiro by his teacher, which he used as a signature mark in his prints.[1] Kasamatsu made woodblock prints for the publisher Shōzaburō Watanabe from 1919. Almost all the woodblocks were destroyed in a fire in Watanabe's print shop following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Around 50 prints were published by Watanabe by the late 1940s.[2] Kasamatsu began to partner with Unsodo in Kyoto from the 1950s and produced over 100 prints by 1960.[3] He also began to print and publish on his own in the Sōsaku-Hanga style. He produced nearly 80 Sōsaku-Hanga prints between 1955 and 1965.[4] [5]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Modern Japanese prints: printed from a photographic reproduction of two exhibition catalogues of modern Japanese prints. Toledo Museum of Art. 1997. Blair, Dorothy.
  2. Web site: Shiro Kasamatsu . 6 July 2024 .
  3. Web site: Shiro Kasamatsu . 17 November 2023 .
  4. Book: Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975. Merrit, Helen. Yamada, Nanako. University of Hawaii Press. 1995 . 54–55.
  5. Web site: Shiro Kasamatsu . 27 June 2024 .