About the artist
Tomoo Inagaki was Sosaku Hanga artist often known for his feline designs. Born in Tokyo, Inagaki was a self-taught artist. After he graduated high school, he worked at a steel company while he studied oil painting and printmaking in his free time. In 1923, his encounter the prints of Hiratsuka Un’ichi and Onchi Koshiro on the pages of Poetry and Prints convinced Inagaki to become a full-time printmaker. He attended meetings of Poetry and Prints and honed his printing skills, but diversified his artist education by studying commercial art under the designer Masuji Hamada. Within a year, Inagaki had published his work in several Sosaku Hanga magazines and exhibited with the Japan Creative Print Association. He became a member of the Japan Print Association in 1932. Throughout his career, he participated in international biennials, from Tokyo to Paris. From 1935 to 1951, he taught at Kyohoku Commercial High School, after which he moved to the Japan Advertising Art School. It was around this transition that he began to explore the feline theme that is so often associated with his work. Inagaki died in Tokyo in 1980.