Kasamatsu Shirô (1898-1991)

Kasamatsu Shirô was born in Tokyo in 1898. He studied Japanese-style painting with Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1973), who was also the teacher of Itô Shinsui (1898-1972). As a painter he was quite successful: he exhibited paintings in the Bunten and the Teiten (a.o). Kaburagi Kiyokata had seen the success of Itô Shinsui as a woodblock print artist employed by the Tokyo publisher Watanabe Shôzaburô, and he encouraged Kasamatsu to start working for him as well. His first prints date from 1919. Before the WWII he only worked for Watanabe, after the war the publisher he mainly worked for was the Kyoto publisher Unsôdô. In the 1950s he became his own publisher. His self-published prints show more individuality.