Artist · 0 prints
Shiro Kasamatsu Prints
About Shiro Kasamatsu
Shiro Kasamatsu was a Japanese painter and printmaker, born on 11 January 1898 in the Asakusa district of Tokyo. At thirteen he became an apprentice to the painter Kaburagi Kiyokata, who gave him the art name Shirō. He studied in the same circle as Itō Shinsui and Kawase Hasui, two other leading print artists of his generation. He lived a long life and died on 14 June 1991, aged 93.
Kasamatsu made his first woodblock print for the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō in 1919, as part of shin hanga, or new prints, the movement that paired an artist's design with skilled carvers and printers. With Watanabe he made more than fifty prints, mostly landscapes and quiet scenes of Tokyo, such as Evening Mist at Shinobazu Pond (1932) and The Great Lantern at Asakusa Kannon Temple (1934). After the war he designed landscapes for the Kyoto publisher Unsōdō, and from around 1955 Shiro Kasamatsu also carved and printed his own sōsaku hanga, or creative prints, by hand.
Shiro Kasamatsu prints: reproductions of the Japanese woodblock prints Shiro Kasamatsu designed between 1919 and the 1970s, in both the shin-hanga and later sōsaku-hanga styles. The collection includes Evening at Shinobazu Pond (1932), Hakone Lake Ashi (1935), Inubozaki Cape (1956), Tokyo Tower (1959) and The White Cat (1972).
This selection concentrates on Kasamatsu's quiet views of Tokyo and the Japanese countryside, often in rain, mist or at dusk, with ponds, moats, bamboo groves, cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji. It also includes his later animal and fish prints, such as Angelfish, Carp and The White Cat, which use flatter shapes and brighter colour.
The soft blues and greens suit bedrooms, bathrooms, studies and hallways, and the rain scenes pair well with each other. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.