Japanese Woodblock Print, c.1930-1940 from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mt Fuji"

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 15.5 x 12.25 inches

KISHIO KOIZUMI (1893-1945) was born in Shizuoka. He was the son of a specialist in calligraphy who commissioned woodblock-printed manuals and he learned the craft from his father's block-carver Horigoe Kan'ichi. In common with many sosaku hanga (creative print) artists he studied Western-style water-color, in his case under Ishii Hakutei (1882-1958) and Maruyama Banka (1867-1942), at the Nihon Suisaiga-kai (Japan Watercolour Institute) in Tokyo. The three founders of the Institute Ishii Hakutei, Tobari Kogan (1882-1927) and Nakazawa Hiromitsu (1874-1964)] were also woodblock printmakers and Koizumi was naturally led along that path, especially by Tobari Kogan, whom he knew as a colleague in carving blocks for newspaper illustration. He was an early member of the Creative Print Association from 1919 and an activist in it and its successors. Like Tobari he was a practical carver of blocks and like him wrote a practical manual much used by other artists, "Mokuhanga no horikata to surikata" (The method of carving and printing woodblock prints, 1924).

Koizumi is best known for his series "Showa dai Tokyo hyakkei zue" (One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era) which he produced himself between 1928 and 1940. Although artistically interesting only in parts, the series is a detailed and nostalgic survey of pre-war Tokyo, including a poignant view of Frank Lloyd Wright's old Imperial Hotel. Koizumi was influential on the sosaku hanga movement through his manual and through carving and printing for other artists. He was forced to leave Tokyo by the Pacific War, and died in Saitama in 1945 before he could return.

VG, minor flaws