Koizumi Kishio

Koizumi was born in 1893, in Shizuoka, Japan during the late Meiji period. His father, Koizumi Ken'kichi, was a master calligrapher and had many connections with contemporary artists. From a young age Koizumi learned from his father's woodblock cutter Horigoe Kan'ichi before moving to Tokyo to continue his studies in woodblock printing under Ishii Hakutei and Maruyama Banka at the Japan Watercolour Institute (Nihon Suisaiga-kai) primarily focused on Western art techniques.^[2]

By 1914, Koizumi had begun working alongside creative print artists, such as Kogan Tobari, being recognised for his traditional carving technique-style.^[3][4] Koizumi joined the Japan Creative Print Association (Nihon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai) in 1919, after it had been established the year prior^[5], participating in its first exhibition held at the Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi.^[6] This is also where Koizumi first exhibited his print recreating the famous Portrait of Beethoven originally by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1820.^[7]

Koizumi's early career took a similar path to many other creative print artists, reflecting a general departure from the ukiyo-e tradition through the twentieth century, and also the artistic response to the devastating impact of the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923. He continued to live in Tokyo for the majority of his life. Like other modern artistic movements in Japan such as Shin-hanga or modern print movement, the creative print movement found its initial foothold in Tokyo, before variations of the movement emerged across the Kansai region.^[8][9]

Unlike a group of eight of Koizumi's contemporaries who called themselves Takujōsha or the Table Group, which in 1929 had begun working on a series of prints depicting modernising Tokyo, at around the same time in 1928, Koizumi worked independently on his series: "One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era". This stems from an artistic tradition followed on from nineteenth century ukiyo-e artists, for example, Hiroshige's "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei)". Koizumi initially completed the series of one hundred prints in 1940, before adding an additional nine prints, and further annotations in the same year.^[10][11] Although beginning alongside each other and both considered "grand projects", the one hundred print series by Koizumi was distinctive to the series created by the Table Group and completed in 1932.^[1]

Following the Manchurian Incident in 1931, and then the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Koizumi's prints became increasingly militarised and patriotic in tone, depicting soldiers in uniform, military parades and many Japanese flags.^[12] The prints also emphasised the Westernisation of Tokyo's transforming infrastructure, and changes in landscape and fashion.^[13] Despite the ongoing war, in 1942 Koizumi's series was exhibited in Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama, and it was considered successful with full editions sold through the Asahi newspaper company.^[12]

Due to the escalation of the Asia-Pacific War, Koizumi was soon forced to evacuate Tokyo, leaving for Saitama. Koizumi then began a new series in 1942, aspiring to offer a modern interpretation of the 36 views of Mount Fuji, in honour to Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. He completed 23 of the 36 in the next few years, but ultimately never finished the series. His health quickly declined towards the end of the war, and even though he continued to work after the surrender of Japan in August, Koizumi died at the age of 52 in December 1945, before he could return to Tokyo.^[2] In 1946, his work was once again exhibited at the Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi, where all 23 prints of his in-progress series were displayed.^[12]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Koizumi Kishio.

• Koizumi Kishio, Art Institute of Chicago (2026)