Japanese Woodblock Print, c.1920, publisher unknown

SIZE IN INCHES: 9.5 x 12 inches

KITANO TSUNETOMI was a painter and print artist. Tsunetomi ended his life well known as a painter in the 'Nihonga' style, but his original training was in the business of woodblock printing. Born in Kanazawa, he went to Osaka in 1892 and was apprenticed to Nishida Suketaro, who was a preparer of 'hanshita-e', the final drawings used when cutting the blocks for woodblock prints. He also studied 'Nanga'-style painting, sculpture and woodblock carving under various teachers before joining the carving section of the 'Hokkoku shinpo' newspaper in 1897, where he was able to study newspaper illustrations; but he soon returned to Osaka to study painting under Inano Toshitsune, a minor artist who was in a line from the 'Ukiyo-e' school. From him he adopted the 'Tsune' element in his art name, and absorbed a style of painting beautiful women which was a transition between 'Ukiyo-e' and 'Nihonga'. Inano made him work as a woodblock cutter. He published the first of his illustrations for serialised novels in an Osaka journal. While earning his living in this way, he continued to paint and first exhibited in the government-sponsored Bunten show in 1910. In 1912 he helped set up the Taisho Art Society devoted to the encouragement of child artists and in 1915 the Osaka Art Society, at which he became a regular exhibitor. In 1917 he was elected to the Japan Art Institute, and thereafter remained a regular exhibitor at official exhibitions. In 1934 he was invited to contribute wall-paintings to the Shotoku Memorial Painting Hall in the Meiji Shrine, Tokyo.

Tsunetomi's subject-matter was usually beautiful women from the world of entertainment and fashion in the Osaka area, and his work is important as a record of that way of life. Many of his paintings are rescued from the common sentimentality of the period by a gritty edginess which is not unlike the early prints of Ito Shinsui. He designed few sheet-prints, and all of them seem to have been adapted from earlier paintings. His best-known print is 'Sagimusume' (Heron Maiden), published in 1925. Tsunetomi was an important figure in Osaka art circles, teaching many pupils, including the painter and print designer Shima Seien (1892-1970).

VG, with flaws as shown