Color woodcut, ink, paper, 28.5x25.5 cm, artist's signature, publisher's stamp
Woodcut from the series "Fifteen Views of Kyoto".
Tokuriki Tomikichirō was a prominent printmaker in the circle of Kyoto artists in the 20th century. He came from a family with a long artistic pedigree. He graduated from the Municipal School of Arts and Crafts and the Specialized School of Painting in Kyoto in 1924, and continued his study of Japanese-style painting with Bakusen Tsuchida (1887-1936) and Yamamoto Shunkyo (1871-1933). In the late 1920s, he met Unichi Hiratsuka, a key figure in the nascent sosaku hanga art movement. Unichi gave him lessons in printing woodcuts in the "sosaku" style: self-designed, carved, printed and published. This pivotal meeting redirected Tokuriki's attention to printmaking. In 1932, he became a member of the "Nihon Hanga Kyokai" association of sosaku hanga artists. At the same time, he worked with established ukiyo-e publishers such as Uchida and Unsodo. He designed outstanding prints for them in the shin hanga style. Shin hanga is a significant Japanese artistic trend that focused on traditional subjects such as landscapes, portraits of beautiful women and actors. It drew inspiration from European Impressionism, combining techniques of depicting light effects with individual emotions. The result of this combination was an art form characterized by technical brilliance, presenting a captivating, luminous new style of Japanese printmaking. Before and during the Pacific War, Tomikichiro created many sets of prints based on traditional themes, such as "Shin Kyoto fukei" ("New View of Kyoto," 1933-4) and "Tokyo hakkei" ("Eight Views of Tokyo," 1942). Most of these were published by Kyoto-based Uchida. After the war, Tokuriki established his own publishing company called Matsukyu, which also began teaching woodcutting to artisans and artists, many of whom were foreigners in later years. Until the 1970s. Tokuriki actively taught and wrote, producing a long series of articles on printing techniques in the magazine "Hanga geijutsu."
Tokuriki Tomikichiro died in 2000 in his native Kyoto at the age of 98. In the art world, especially among ukiyo-e collectors, he is considered a master of Japanese printmaking in the shin hanga style.
