Kokei (1946 - Present)

Kokei Tsuruya holds a unique place among Japan’s contemporary woodblock print artists. Emotionally charged, bold and vividly rendered, his kabuki portraits blend the spirit of ukiyo-e with a distinctly modern angle. With expressive faces and exaggerated gestures, contemporary stars of the kabuki stage spring from the artist’s imagination, bold against delicate sheets of ganpi paper. As Kokei found inspiration in the actor prints of the Edo period, he also reinvigorated the symbiotic relationship between the woodblock print and the kabuki theater through his twenty-two year partnership with the Kabuki-za, Tokyo’s premier kabuki theater.

Born in 1946 in Chigasaki, Kanagawa prefecture as Mitsui Gen, Kokei Tsuruya was raised in Shinjuku ward of Tokyo. Both his father and grandfather worked as professional artists, yet Kokei set off on a different path. Kokei explored woodblock carving as a pastime and collected ukiyo-e, but spent his early adulthood pursuing a corporate career. That is, until the mid-1970s. Profoundly inspired by a Kabuki performance, he soon traded office life for the artist’s workshop and began to design actor portraits. Around this time, Kokei's work caught the eye of Takeomi Nagayama, the president of the Shochiku Company, which owned the Kabuki-za, and a symbiotic relationship between artist and theater blossomed. Between 1978 and 2000, Kokei produced around 12 limited edition designs annually, each of which was sold during the production of the play depicted. Kokei completed each print from start to finish – designing, carving, inking, printing, and, ultimately, destroying each block himself. These limited-edition prints were to be sold specifically at the theater. Beginning in May of 1985, members of the “Kokei-kai,” could sign up to purchase Kokei Tsuruya's designs for two year, and later, 15-month periods.

In 2000, after twenty-two years of actor prints, Kokei looked beyond the stage and the woodblock print. Over the next two decades, he developed a robust portfolio of self-portraits across different mediums. In 2017, Kokei returned to the woodblock print with his ongoing project Banzai Ukiyoe-ha Gosugata (Long Live the Five Figures of Ukiyo-e). These portraits breathe life into the ukiyo-e masters that inspired Kokei’s passion for the art form. Kokei Tsuruya’s work can be found in numerous institutions such as the British Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Pacific Asia Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Honolulu Museum of Art. In 2019, the Pacific Asia Museum at the University of Southern California held the retrospective Tsuruya Kokei: Modern Kabuki Prints Revised & Revisited.

Contemporary Japanese and East Asian Art

Ronin Gallery’s Contemporary art collection challenges the boundaries of tradition and innovation through the work of Japan's greatest contemporary artists and tomorrow’s most promising talents. Featured in museum exhibitions worldwide, contemporary Japanese and East Asian artists are pushing limits and exploring fresh techniques across mediums and styles. For many of the contemporary artists in this collection, inspiration sparks from an interweaving of old with new. Many combine traditional themes, tools, or materials with technology, contemporary themes, or innovative techniques. This hybrid expression is distinctly contemporary and unremittingly vital. From the Pop art legacy of the Shinohara’s to the foremost master of Japanese tattooing, Horiyoshi III, this collection of contemporary Japanese and East Asian art spans a wide range of media, including woodblock prints, screen prints, photography, etchings, paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, ceramics, and mixed media artworks.

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Availability

  • Available
  • Archive

Price

4200750

Artist

  • Chen, Long
  • Dai, Bin
  • Gakyo
  • Goto, Michiyoshi
  • Horiyoshi III
  • Iizuka, Kunio
  • Ishii, Toru
  • Ishimoto, Yasuhiro
  • Keibun
  • Kokei
  • Kusama, Yayoi
  • Ling, Junwu
  • Maeda, Morikazu
  • Magers, Michael
  • Nishigaki, Hayaki
  • Nishikawa, Yoichiro
  • Sarashina, Syu (Shu)
  • Shi, Yi
  • Suzuki, Eizin
  • Takahashi, Hiromitsu
  • Murakami, Takashi
  • Ukiyo-e Project (Publisher)
  • Van Otterloo, Chris
  • Yamao, Akio
  • Yoshida, Tsukasa
  • Araki, Shinko
  • Brayer, Sarah
  • Brown, Everett
  • Fang, Limin
  • Fujita, Fumio
  • Fukase, Masahisa
  • Funasaka, Yoshisuke
  • Fukami, Gashu
  • Gu, Zhijun
  • Hagiwara, Hideo
  • Hagiwara, Tsuneyoshi
  • Hao, Boyi
  • Hao, Ping
  • Hara, Takeshi
  • Hiratsuka, Yuji
  • Hironaga, Takehiko
  • Horie, Ryoichi
  • Hoshi, Joichi
  • Hosoe, Eikoh
  • Howard, Daryl
  • Ideguchi, Yuki
  • Ido, Masao
  • Ikai, Tadashi
  • Imaizumi, Tadayoshi
  • Iwasawa, Asako
  • Yuasa, Katsutoshi
  • Kawada, Kan
  • Kawase, Yoshihito
  • Okamoto, Kazuko
  • Kelly, Daniel
  • Kidokoro, Sho
  • Kimura, Yoshiharu
  • Korn, Marian
  • Kozaki, Kan
  • Kaneko, Kunio
  • Kuroda, Shigeki
  • Li, Yansong
  • Li, Yitai
  • Lin, Dunxi
  • Lippens, Josée
  • Liu, Chunhai
  • Lu, Chengqing
  • Lu, Ping
  • Lu, Zhiping
  • Ui, Machiko
  • Maki, Haku
  • Minami, Masahiko
  • Miyamoto, Shufu
  • Miyashita, Tokio
  • Morigo, Nao
  • Sato, Morihiro
  • Moriyama, Daido
  • Oi, Motoi
  • Nagano, Shigeichi
  • Naito, Tadayuki
  • Naito, Yachiyo
  • Nakayama, Tadashi
  • Namiki, Hajime
  • Ng, Cindy Sio Leng
  • Nishida, Tadashige
  • Nishijima, Katsuyuki
  • Sato, Nobuo
  • Norikane, Hiroto
  • Ogawa, Koichi
  • Ohashi, Shigeyuki
  • Ohba, Masao
  • Okamoto, Yoshimi
  • Osanai, Toshikage
  • Osugi, Shoji
  • Rome, Joshua
  • Tanaka, Ryohei
  • Sakamoto, Koichi
  • Sano, Seiji
  • Sato, Tokihiro
  • Shi, Ji-hong
  • Shibata, Toshio
  • Shimotakahara, Nobuteru
  • Shinoda, Toko
  • Shinohara, Noriko
  • Shinohara, Ushio
  • Shitanda, Zen
  • Suda, Issei
  • Sudo, Masato
  • Sugiura, Kazutoshi
  • Takeda, Hideo
  • Tamai, Cyoko
  • Tokuriki, Tomikichiro
  • Tomihari, Hiroshi
  • Kamoshita, Tomomi
  • Ueda, Yoshihiko
  • Unsigned / Unknown Artist
  • Ito, Wako
  • Williams, Brian
  • Wu, Yin
  • Xu, Ming
  • Yamaguchi, Keisuke (OZ)
  • Yamazaki, Hiroshi
  • Yang, Yongsheng
  • Yeh, Fang
  • Yeh, Lan
  • Yu, Chengyou
  • Nishimoto, Yuki
  • Katsuda, Yukio
  • Zhang, Yuanfeng

Subject

  • Actors & Theater
  • Beauties (bijin-ga)
  • Portraits
  • Spring

Period

  • 1945 - 1989 (Showa & Postwar Period)
  • 1989 - Today (Heisei & Reiwa)

Medium

  • Woodblock Print

Size

  • Medium (ie. Oban)
  • Large (ie. Triptych)

63 Products

Filtered By: Kokei
Sawamura Tanosuke VI as Satsuki, Wife of Mitsuhide

Kokei

Sawamura Tanosuke VI as Satsuki, Wife of Mitsuhide

JP-208057

$2,000.00
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Nakamura Shikan VII as White Fox Kuzunoha, Wife of Yasuna

Kokei

Nakamura Shikan VII as White Fox Kuzunoha, Wife of Yasuna

JP-208056

$1,800.00
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Ichikawa Ennosuke III as Boatwoman Oen

Kokei

Ichikawa Ennosuke III as Boatwoman Oen

JP-208055

$1,800.00
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Nakamura Tokizo V as Mistress Otome

Kokei

Nakamura Tokizo V as Mistress Otome

JP-208054

$1,400.00
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Nakamura Utaemon VI as Courtesan Chitosedayu

Kokei

Nakamura Utaemon VI as Courtesan Chitosedayu

JP-208053

$2,200.00
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Kataoka Gado XII as Osen of Izutsuya

Kokei

Kataoka Gado XII as Osen of Izutsuya

JP-208052

$1,800.00
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Nakamura Senjaku II as Courtesan Osome

Kokei

Nakamura Senjaku II as Courtesan Osome

JP-208051

$980.00
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Onoe Shoroku II as Kudo Suketsune

Kokei

Onoe Shoroku II as Kudo Suketsune

JP-208050

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Bando Tamasaburo V as the Courtesan Okaru

Kokei

Bando Tamasaburo V as the Courtesan Okaru

JP-208049

$1,600.00
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Nakamura Tomijuro V as Lady's Maid Kasane

Kokei

Nakamura Tomijuro V as Lady's Maid Kasane

JP-208047

$1,600.00
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Ichikawa Monnosuke VII as Courtesan Shiratama

Kokei

Ichikawa Monnosuke VII as Courtesan Shiratama

JP-208046

$1,600.00
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Nakamura Jakuemon IV as the Courtesan Matsuyama-Tayu

Kokei

Nakamura Jakuemon IV as the Courtesan Matsuyama-Tayu

JP-208045

$1,600.00
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Nakamura Jakuemon IV as the Geisha Koman of the Sakuraya

Kokei

Nakamura Jakuemon IV as the Geisha Koman of the Sakuraya

JP-208044

$2,200.00
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Nakamura Jakuemon IV as Maid Chidori

Kokei

Nakamura Jakuemon IV as Maid Chidori

JP-83067

$980.00
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Nakamura Jakuemon IV as Oryu

Kokei

Nakamura Jakuemon IV as Oryu

JP-83070

$980.00
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