Fukami Gashu (1953 - )

Fukami Gashu was born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1953. In 1975 he graduated at the Doshisha University in Kyoto. At university he had come across the woodblock prints of Azechi Umetarô and Asano Takeji, and he was strongly attracted by their work. Subsequently, in 1977, he studied woodblock printing and carving, also in Kyoto, and in 1978 he went to Boston for a year, where he studied at the Kaji Aso Studio.
In 1983 he went to live in Kyoto, where he had his first solo show in 1988. Many other exhibitions all over Japan followed. In 1997 he moved to Nagasaki, and two years later to Fukuoka, where he still lives and works. In 2001, 2003 and 2008 he had solo shows at the Zokyudo Gallery in Kyoto, and in 2010 the Ronin Gallery started showing his work.
His work is highly individual, firmly rooted in the Sôsaku Hanga tradition, and instantly recognizable.