About the artist
Tobei Kamei was a 20th-century painter and print artist associated with the Sosaku Hanga (creative print) movement. He used the name “Kamei” until 1953 when he assumed the name “Genbei.” Born as Eiichi Kamei in Wakayama prefecture, Kamei studied painting with Ryushi Kawabata and Koun Yamada at the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting. Independently, he explored woodblock printmaking. In 1929, he co-founded Kyoto Sosaku-hanga Kyokai, an organization dedicated to the philosophy of the Sosaku Hanga movement, publishing his self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed works in publications such as Taishu hanga. While creative prints were his passion, Kamei made a living through commercial designs of Kyoto for publishers Uchida and Unsodo. After 1945, Kamei was associated with Korokusha, the Sosaku Hanga branch of fellow artist Tomikichiro Tokuriki’s (1902-2000) publishing company Matsukyu. From 1937, Kamei exhibited his nihonga (Japanese-style painting) with the organization Seiryusha. Today, Tobei Kamei’s work can be found in institutions such as the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.