Eiichi Kotozuka (1906-1979) Japanese, 1962 Colored Woodblock Print. Shows the pagoda of the Nikko Tōshō-gū shrine complex in the midst of tall pines. Kanji at bottom left indicates it is a Uchida Publishing piece. Signature in print in kanji bottom right. Description and date written on back of frame in pen. 

Overall Size: 25 x 18 1/2 in. 

Sight Size: 16 x 11 in. 

Eiichi Kotozuka was born in 1906 in Osaka and attended the Kyoto Technical School of Painting, graduating in 1930. He was one of the founders of the Seiryusha Group of Liberal Artists while attending school, which wanted to give opportunities to artists to explore more surreal and abstract styles in their work, and in 1932 he exhibited prints with Shun Yokai (Spring Principle Association), an artist’s organization that exhibited Western-style art. His surviving work from before World War II was primarily woodblock prints in the shin-hanga style that revitalized traditional ukiyo-e art, as after the invasion of Manchuria the militaristic government began to crack down violently on political dissidents, and artists came under particular scrutiny for any supposed “anti-Japanese” or “decadent” sentiments. He exhibited in the government-run exhibition Teikoku Bijutsu Tenrankai (or “Teiten” for short) in 1934, and was a member of the Nihon Hanga Kyokai (Japan Print Association) from 1938 onward, but after the War his style changed when he became a major proponent of the sosaku-hanga (creative prints) style, working primarily with Uchida Publishing, who produced his most famous series “Eight Snow Scenes of Kyoto.” He worked with several other artists to found the Koryokusha printing group in 1948 and promote sosaku-hanga, and in his later life he collaborated with many artists, particularly Tomikichiro Tokuriki, but had no known disciples or children and died on March 11th, 1979 in Kyoto.

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