Sadao Watanabe (artist)

Sadao Watanabe (渡辺 禎雄, Watanabe Sadao, July 7, 1913 – January 8, 1996), born and raised in

Early life

Watanabe's father died when he was ten years old. He dropped out of school at an early age and became an apprentice in a dyer's shop. A Christian woman in his neighborhood invited the fatherless boy to attend church with her. At the age of seventeen, Watanabe received baptism.^[2]

The path towards printmaking

The young Watanabe worked in dyers' shops,

. From then on, the teacher-and-student relationship between Serizawa and Watanabe became strong and abiding.

Subject matter and technique

The subject matter of Watanabe's prints is exclusively the

.

Watanabe uses kozo paper (from mulberry tree) and momigami (kneaded paper). The momigami paper was crumpled by hand, squeezed and wrinkled to give a rough quality to the prints. The katazome method uses traditional organic and mineral pigments in a medium of soybean milk. The protein in the milk bound the colors to the paper's surface. The use of natural materials is one of the characteristics of mingei (folk art).

International recognition

In 1958, Watanabe received first prize at the Modern Japanese Print Exhibition held in

artists to the Western audience.

The

The artist's philosophy

Watanabe once remarked that he preferred that his prints hang in the ordinary places of life: "I would most like to see them [his prints] hanging where people ordinarily gather, because Jesus brought the gospel for the people".[5] Such is the mingei philosophy of art for the people and by the people.

References and further reading

• Michener, James A., The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation, Tuttle Publishing, Rutland, Vermont, 1968, pp. 27–30
• Pyle, Anne H. H. (April 2000), "A Christian Faith in the Tradition of Japanese Folk Art: The Art of Watanabe Sadao (1913-1996)", Arts Magazine: 20–29.
• Watanabe, Sadao; Takenaka, Masao (1986), Biblical Prints, Tokyo: Shinkyo Shuppansha.
• Watanabe, Sadao (2000), Printing the Word: the Art of Watanabe Sadao, New York: American Bible Society.
• Heeding the Voice of Heaven, Sadao Watanabe, Biblical Stencil Prints, Brauer Museum of Art, 2010, Valparaiso.
• Beauty given by grace, The biblical prints of Sadao Watanabe, ed. Sandra Bowden, 2012, Baltimore.
• Biblical Prints by Sadao Watanabe - All Thy Marvelous Works, (渡辺禎雄聖書版画集 くすしきみわざ), Shinkyo Publishing, 2013, Tokyo.

External links

• Watanabe Sadao's works at Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• The SadaoHanga Catalogue:[1]

References