Inagaki Toshijiro (稲垣稔二郎) (March 3, 1902 June 10, 1963) was a Japanese

katazome is a Japanese method of dyeing fabrics using a resist paste applied through a stencil, typically a rice flour mixture applied with a brush or a tool such as a palette knife. Unlike , stencils are used repeatedly to make a repeating pattern. Pi ...

artist. His given name is also sometimes read as "Nenjiro".

Early life and education

Inagaki was born in Kyoto to Takejiro Inagaki, a painter. He was the second child, and his older brother was Chusei Inagaki. He studied at the

Kyoto City University of Arts is a public, municipal university of general art and music in Kyoto, Japan. Established in 1880, it is Japan's oldest university of the arts (the predecessor of Tokyo University of the Arts was founded in 1887). Among its faculty and graduates ...

, and graduated in 1922.

Career

After graduation, Inagaki worked at the

Matsuzakaya ( TYO: 8235, delisted) is a major Japanese department store chain operated by Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores, a subsidiary of J. Front Retailing. When the chain was an independent company, , it had its headquarters in Naka-ku, Nagoya. ...

department store, where he learned to dye cloth. He left the department store in 1931 to focus on his art. In 1938, he began to dye screen paintings using the yuzen method of dyeing. He won an award at the Kokugakai exhibition in 1940, but he entered the spotlight when one of his paintings was selected at the Nitten exhibition in 1941. He was selected twice more after that. After World War II, he left the Kokugakai and formed the Shinsho Bijutsu Kogei Kai with

Tomimoto Kenkichi was a Japanese potter and a Living National Treasure. Biography His family came from Nara prefecture. He received a commission to design a large Japanese-lacquered zelkova shelf called “kingin-sai kazari tsubo” for the ''Ume-no-Ma'' au ...

. He then began dyeing using the katazome method in 1948, and continued to do so for the rest of his life. He was appointed a professor at his alma mater, the Kyoto City University of Arts, in 1958. He was designated a Living National Treasure in 1962, a year before his death from cancer on June 10, 1963. His work is held by the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

and the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art.

Style

His style has been criticized as being too traditional, especially when compared with Chusei's paintings. While Chusei bucked tradition by painting in a realist style, Toshijiro painted nature and famous places in a more typical

nihonga ''Nihonga'' (, "Japanese-style paintings") are Japanese paintings from about 1900 onwards that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years ...

style. The brothers works were shown together at an exhibit at the

National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto The is an art museum in Kyoto, Japan. This Kyoto museum is also known by the English acronym MoMAK (Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto). History The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (MoMAK) was initially created as the Annex Museum of the National ...

in 2010. Inagaki made his dyes from plants gathered in the countryside surrounding

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, and frequently painted the scenery he saw there.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inagaki, Toshijiro 1902 births 1963 deaths Kyoto City University of Arts alumni People from Kyoto Japanese textile artists