Kotondo (1900 - 1976 )
Kotondo Torii was born as Akira Saito in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo. He was adopted as the son of Kiyotada Torii, the seventh Torii master and head of the school from 1929 until 1951. Kotondo began his career in 1914 in yamato-e (Japanese court painting) under the tutelage of Tomone Kobori, before joining Shinsui Ito in the workshop of Kiyokata Kaburaki in 1918. Early in his career, Kotondo produced posters and other kabuki focused illustrations for Entertainment Illustrated magazine. He completed the majority of his woodblock prints between 1927 and 1933, working with several publishers including Sakai/Kawaguchi (Kyoto, 1920s) and Ikeda (Tokyo, 1930s). After his father’s death in 1941, Kotondo assumed the name Torii VIII (Kiyotada V). From 1966 to 1972, he lectured at Nihon University. Unlike his kabuki-focused Torii predecessors, Kotondo turned to the bijin-ga genre. In both his paintings and his woodblock prints, he portrayed beauties with a delicacy and intimacy. Over course of his career, he produced twenty-two bijin-ga designs. Six of these designs were issued in multiple color variations.
Shin Hanga | Pre-WWII Japanese Prints
By the beginning of the 20th century the social fabric of Japan was radically altered and ukiyo-e was falling fast into oblivion. Surprisingly, it was under the stimulus of the Western art world that the spirit of ukiyo-e was reborn through the Shin Hanga or “new print” movement. The discovery of the powerful impact of ukiyo-e print masters on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists inspired a new generation of Japanese print artists who revived distinctly Japanese subject matter through modern eyes. International excitement for ukiyo-e paved the way for these artists to create woodblock prints with the same dignity, perfection and genius as the masters of the Edo period. As artists such as Goyo, Kotondo and Shinsui revived bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) and Hasui and Yoshida reinterpreted the landscape of Japan, Shin Hanga reasserted the principal genres of ukiyo-e with a renewed vigor. Browse our collection of Shin Hanga and other pre-war Japanese artworks today.
15 Products
