Japanese Woodblock Print, 1958, limited edition, numbered 16/50 in the bottom margin, signed in the block

SIZE IN INCHES: double oban, 18 x 23 inches

TOMOO INAGAKI (1902-1980) graduated from Okura Commercial High School in 1923. While in high school he began painting in oils. After graduation he worked for a steel company, but he soon realized that his destiny was to be an artist and enrolled in a two year commercial art school. Upon graduation he worked in the display department of a Yokohama store for several months before setting up his own commercial art studio in Tokyo.

For his start in prints Tomoo credits the magazine Shi to Hanga ["Poetry and Prints"], published in the early 1920s by the two most prominent sosaku hanga artists Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955) and Hiratsuka Un'ichi (1895-1997). After one of his prints was accepted for publication in 1924, Tomoo was allowed to attend meetings of the Shi to Hanga group in which the editors and contributors discussed common problems and criticized each other's work." Tomoo credits these meetings as his "only training in woodblock." Now dedicated to print making, Tomoo had his prints published in various small print magazines and folios, including HANGA ("Prints") issues 6, 9/10, 11 and 14, Kitsutsuki ("Woodpecker”) and Ichimokusho ("First Thursday Collection"). Also in 1924 he first exhibited with the Nihon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai (Japan Creative Print Association). In 1932 he became of member of the Nihon Hanga Kokai (Japan Print Association).

As with most print artists Tomoo was not able to make a living solely from print making and worked as a teacher, teaching at the Commercial Artists Association School from 1930 until 1951 and then the Japan Advertising Art School, and as a freelance designer, operating his own design business until WWII.

Tomoo Inagaki's prints are held in the collections of the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art New York, and The Art Institute of Chicago among many others.

VG, with flaws as shown