Eiichi Kotozuka

Eiichi Kotozuka (琴塚 英一, Kotozuka Eiichi; 1906 – 1 October 1981) was a 20th-century Japanese commercial artist and woodblock printmaker. He was a prolific artist of the sōsaku-hanga style. He was one of four artists who co-founded the print publishing company Koryokusha. He was noted for his prints of Japanese cultural traditions, flowers, landscapes, and wildlife.

Biography

Kotozuka was born in Osaka in 1906. His prints of Japanese cultural traditions, kachō-ga, meisho-e and wildlife were published chiefly by Uchida and Unsōdō. From 1932 he exhibited with the Shun'yōkai, an organisation of Western-style painters, and in 1934 he took part for the first time in the Teiten exhibition. He was a member of the Seiryusha Group of Liberal Artists, taking part regularly from 1938 in the Seiryūsha exhibitions organised by Kawabata Ryūshi. Alongside his preferred sōsaku-hanga prints, he also worked with the publisher Uchida to produce shin-hanga prints, using the proceeds to help finance his sōsaku-hanga work.

Artistic style

Kotozuka was an adherent of the sosaku hanga style of illustration, which emphasized a print process with greater direct artist involvement, resulting in a somewhat more crude illustration, but one with stronger emotional impact. Prior to sosaku hanga, an artist would create an illustration which would be passed to a team of engravers, printers, and publishers who would each control the production of the final print. In sosaku hanga, the artist was directly involved with each step.

Bibliography

• Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, "Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900–1975", published by University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, ISBN 0-8248-1732-X.
• J. P. Filedt Kok and Jan Frederik Heijbroek, "The Age of Yoshitoshi: Japanese Prints from the Meiji and Taishō Periods : Nagasaki, Yokohama and Kamigata Prints", published by Rijksprentenkabinet/Rijksmuseum