Shiro (1898 - 1991)

Early life

Born in Tokyo in 1898, Shiro Kasamatsu began studying Japanese style painting at a young age with the painter Kaburagi Kiyokata. He exhibited his paintings in the Bunten and Teiten, government sponsored juried exhibitions.

Woodblock printing

Shiro completed his first woodblock designs for Watanabe Shozaburo in 1919 after the publisher saw his paintings on exhibit. Shiro designed shin-hanga prints for Watanabe for many years, becoming well known for his romantic landscapes of famous landmarks and his scenes of traditional Japanese life. From 1952 to 1960, he created more than one hundred woodblock designs for the Kyoto publisher Unsodo. He also experimented with sosaku hanga or creative prints starting in the late 1950s, carving and printing his own designs. Shiro is regarded as one of the leading shin-hanga woodblock print artists in Japan.