Japan Art and Koizumi Kishio: Tokyo in the 1930s
Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Koizumi Kishio (1893-1945) was born during the dynamic Meiji Period (1868-1912). However, he witnessed the nationalist period of the early Showa Period and the devastation of the Pacific War.
Indeed, the carpet bombing of Tokyo by America entailed that he was forced to flee the capital of Japan. Accordingly, the final years of his life differed from the hope of the Taisho Period (1912-1926), which provided greater freedom.
The British Museum says, “Koizumi was born in Shizuoka, the son of a specialist in calligraphy who commissioned woodblock-printed manuals; he learned the craft from his father’s block-carver Horigoe Kan’ichi. In common with many ‘Sosaku Hanga’ artists he studied Western-style water-colour, in his case under Ishii Hakutei (q.v.) and Maruyama Banka (1867-1942), at the Nihon Suisaiga-kai (Japan Watercolour Institute) in Tokyo.”
All three prints in this article focus on Tokyo between 1935 and 1937. Hence, Koizumi provides a glimpse into the world of Tokyo through the prism of sosaku hanga (creative prints) prints.
Above is Sakurada Gate (Sakuradamon Gate) in Tokyo during a heavy snowstorm. This famous gate was built in the early Edo Period in the seventeenth century.
The other two prints focus on Ueno and Azabu, respectively.
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