"B. Asakusa district of Tokyo. Original name Takahashi Katsutaro; used the art name Shotei 1907-1922, Hiroaki or Komei after 1922. Studied Japanese-style painting with his uncle Matsumoto Fuko. In 1891 with Terazaki Kogyo organized Japan Youth Painting Society (Nihon Seinen Kaiga Kyokai). Illustrated textbooks and newspaper novels. Began designing woodblocks for Watanabe Shozaburo for export in 1907 and produced ca. 500 prints before 1923. The blocks were all destroyed in a fire that swept through Watanabe's workshop on the heels of the great Kanto earthquake. Hiroaki then resumed work for Watanabe and created ca. 250 more designs for scenery prints and the small greeting cards with which Watanabe rebuilt his export business. Prints of nudes and other subjects were published by Fusui Gabo in the 1930s. According to one report Hiroaki, visiting his daughter in Hiroshima in August 1945, was killed by the atomic bomb." --'Guide to Modern Japanese Prints: 1900-1975' by H. Merritt and N. Yamada



Detail:


Signature and title:


Return to: