Natori, Shunsen (1886 - 1960 )
Shunsen Natori (né Yoshinosuke Natori) was the son of a Tokyo silk merchant. Shunsen took an early interest in art. He studied nihonga (Japanese-style painting) under Beisen Kubota and participated in his first exhibition in 1906. Shunsen then entered Tokyo School of Fine Arts and began working as an illustrator for the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, where he became interested in kabuki portraiture. In 1916, Shunsen collaborated with Shozaburo Watanabe on two kabuki prints. By 1919, Shunsen Natori retired from nihonga and became a prominent woodblock print artist in the actor print genre. His work is known for its vibrant emotion, most readily apparent in his portraits. Following the tragic passing of his daughter Yoshiko in 1958, Shunsen and his wife, unable to get over her death, committed suicide in 1960.
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.
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Natori, Shunsen
Nakamura Shikaku II as Shizuka-gozen at Horikawa
JPR5819
