Ishiwata, Koitsu (1897 - 1987 )
Koitsu Ishiwata was born in Tokyo in 1897 as Shoichiro Ishiwata. He began his career studying design, fabric dyeing and Japanese-style painting. By the 1920s, he had earned a reputation as fabric designer working for Yokohama’s Nozawaya department store. It was none other than Hasui Kawase, a leader of the Shin Hanga, or "New Print," movement, that spurred Koistu’s shift to the woodblock medium. In 1930, Koitsu Ishiwata dedicated himself to the print medium and assumed his name. In 1931, he produced neighborhood genre scenes for the famous Shin Hanga publisher Shozaburo Watanabe. Koitsu’s later series include Collection of Pictures of Toys (c.1935) and Hot Spring Landscapes (c.1940), as well as several works that combined woodblock and stencil techniques published by Junji Kato.
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.
4 Products
Ishiwata, Koitsu
View of Barber at Koyasuhama in Kanagawa
JPR-200102
