Shinsui Itō

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Itō Shinsui
Shin hanga
ChildrenYukiji Asaoka
AwardsLiving National Treasure
Order of the Rising Sun
Before the Mirror
The Fragrance of a Bath (1930)

Shinsui Itō (

Shōwa-period Japan. He was one of the great names of the shin-hanga
art movement, which revitalized the traditional art after it began to decline with the advent of photography in the early 20th century. His real name was Itō Hajime (Japanese: 伊東 一).

Biography

Itō was born in the

Fukagawa district of Tokyo
. After unwise investments bankrupted his father's business, he was forced to drop out of elementary school in the third grade and became a live-in apprentice at a printing shop. It was in this manner that he became interested in printing techniques and also in the arts.

In 1911, Itō was accepted as an apprentice under

woodblock print
the following year. His talent was soon apparent, and from the following year, his paintings were entered in public exhibitions.

In 1912, his works were first shown by the Tatsumi gakai ("Southeast Painting Society") and later works were displayed by the Kyodokai ("Homeland Society"), the Nihon bijutsuin (Japan Art Institute), and in the government sponsored

Bunten show. His works were received with much praise by art critics, and his reputation was soon made. His early works won numerous awards, and he accepted a post at the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun
to supply illustrations for newspapers.

As with most artists of the

Watanabe Shōzaburō, who effectively monopolized the market. Itō came to be known as a specialist in the bijin-ga ("picture[s] of beautiful women") genre, although he also occasionally painted landscapes
.

Itō's first major print, "Before the Mirror", depicts a young woman wearing a deep red kimono under-robe, looking off into an unseen mirror. Instead of using the harsh aniline red common in other contemporary prints, Itō used a natural vegetable dye, overprinting the robe several times to achieve a rich crimson color. Special care was also taken for the speckled gray texture background, making a contrast with the red garment, black hair, and white skin.

Itō's early landscape series, Eight Views of Lake Biwa inspired Kawase Hasui. His early bijin-ga are generally considered his finest works, including Twelve Figures of New Beauties (1922–1923).[1]

Itō established his own independent studio in 1927. Although many of his early works were direct reflections of traditional ukiyo-e both in subject matter and in style, his technique was revolutionary. Ito would paint a "master painting" in watercolors, and dedicated craftsmen would make the actual prints from this "master copy". Itō was thus a pioneer in the shin-hanga movement. Watanabe and Itō continued their business cooperation into the 1960s, and Watanabe exported thousands of Shinsui prints, generating great success for them both.

Kawase Hasui
, American couple, Itō Shinsui and his wife (1941)

During the

Kamakura, Kanagawa
, in 1949.

In the post-war period Itō came to be regarded as one of the best known and respected personalities in Japanese society, and received several important honors during his lifetime. In 1952 the "Commission for the Protection of Cultural Properties" (Bunkazai Hōgō Iinkai) declared his woodblock designing talent to be of "intangible cultural properties" (mukei bunkazai) which was then the equivalent of being declared a Living National Treasure. In 1958, he became a member of the Japan Art Academy. In 1970, he received the Order of the Rising Sun.

One of Itō's works, Yubi, ("Finger") was the subject of the 1974 Philatelic Week

commemorative postage stamp
issued by the Japanese post office. Another work, Fubuki ("Blizzard") was depicted on a 1983 Japanese commemorative postage stamp as part of the Modern Japanese Arts series.

Itō's daughter,

Shinagawa, Tokyo
.

Major works

  • Eight Views of Lake Biwa – 1917–1918
  • Twelve Figures of New Beauties – 1922–1923
  • Collection of Modern Beauties – 1929–1931
  • Twelve Views of Ōshima – 1937–1938
  • Three Views of Mount Fuji – 1938–1939
  • Ten Views of Shinano – 1948
  • Incense Party (聞香,
    Monkō) - 1950[2]

His works are held in several museums worldwide, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Art,[3] the Toledo Museum of Art,[1] the Hiroshima Museum of Art,[4] the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,[5] the Minneapolis Institute of Art,[6] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[7] the University of Michigan Museum of Art,[8] the Indianapolis Museum of Art,[9] the Hood Museum of Art,[10] the Columbus Museum of Art,[11] the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama,[12] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[13] the Brooklyn Museum,[14] the Harvard Art Museums,[15] and the British Museum.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b "Young Girl from "Twelve Figures of Modern Beauties"". emuseum.toledomuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  2. ^ "文化遺産データベース".
  3. ^ "伊東深水 雪もよひ 画轴 絹本著色 (Primary Title) - (2016.13)". Virginia Museum of Fine Arts |. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  4. ^ "ITO Shinsui - [Hiroshima Museum of Art]". Hiroshima Museum of Art. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  5. ^ "After the Bath - Ito Shinsui". FAMSF Search the Collections. 2015-11-08. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  6. ^ "Chiaki Ajioka | Japanese Modernism & Itō Shinsui: Paintings & Prints –– Minneapolis Institute of Art". new.artsmia.org. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  7. ^ "The Marumage Hairstyle". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  8. ^ "Exchange: Untitled". exchange.umma.umich.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  9. ^ "Eight Views of Ōmi: Mount Hira 近江八景の内比良 (Ōmi hakkei no uchi Hira)". Indianapolis Museum of Art Online Collection. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  10. ^ "Footwarmer (Kotatsu), from The Second Series of Modern Beauties (Gendai bijinshu dai-nishu)". Hood Museum. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  11. ^ "Embark Collection". Columbus Museum of Art. 2016-01-27. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  12. ^ "Work / Material Details : The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura&Hayama". www.moma.pref.kanagawa.jp. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  13. ^ "Passing Rain | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  14. ^ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  15. ^ Harvard. "From the Harvard Art Museums' collections Hair (Kami)". harvardartmuseums.org. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  16. ^ "print | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  • Merritt, Helen and Nanako Yamada. (1995). Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints, 1900-1975. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
    ISBN 9780824812867; OCLC 247995392

External links
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