was a Japanese textile designer. In 1956, he was designated as a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government for his ''

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. ...

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...

dyeing Dyeing is the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving color with desired color fastness. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular ...

technique. A leading member of the ''

mingei The concept of , variously translated into English as "folk craft", "folk art" or "popular art", was developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by a philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961), together with a group of craftsmen, including ...

'' movement founded by

Yanagi Sōetsu , also known as Yanagi Muneyoshi, was a Japanese art critic, philosopher, and founder of the ''mingei'' (folk craft) movement in Japan in the late 1920s and 1930s. Personal life Yanagi was born in 1889 to Yanagi Narayoshi, a hydrographer of the I ...

, Serizawa visited

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

several times and learned the

Ryūkyū The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

bingata ( ryu, 紅型, literally "red style") is a traditional stencilled resist dyeing technique originating in Okinawa Prefecture. typically features a busy pattern of repeating nature motifs such as fish, flowers and fauna in a number of bright co ...

'' techniques of dyeing. Chōsuke Serizawa (

Archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

) was his son. His folk-art productions included

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

, paper prints, wall scrolls,

folding screen A folding screen, also known as pingfeng (), is a type of free-standing furniture consisting of several frames or panels, which are often connected by hinges or by other means. They have practical and decorative uses, and can be made in a variet ...

s, curtains, fans, and calendars. He also produced illustrated books, including ''Don Quixote'', ''Vincent van Gogh'' and ''A Day at Mashiko''. In 1981, the Municipal Serizawa Keisuke Art Museum was opened in the city of

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

. Another museum, the Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum was opened in 1989 in

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

. Other museums that hold his work include the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...

, and the

Museum of New Zealand The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

. "The distinguishing trait of Serizawa's ''katazome'' method is the use of the starch mixture to create, not a colored area as is current in direct-dyeing process, but a blank, undyed one that forms a part of the pattern and that can later be colored by hand in multi-color or monochrome as the designer sees fit."''Keisuke Serizawa, The Stencil Artist, Volume 1''. Tokyo, Tsukiji Shokan Publishing Company , Ltd., distributed by the Maruzen Co., Ltd, 1967.

References

External links

Tohoku Fukushi University Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum
in Japanese
Shizuoka City Serizawa Keisuke Art Museum
in Japanese
Video: "THE ART OF KEISUKE SERIZAWA — A National Treasure of Japan"
from the

Mingei International Museum The Mingei International Museum is a non-profit public institution that collects, conserves and exhibits folk art, craft and design. The museum was founded in 1974, and its building opened in 1978. The word mingei, meaning 'art of the people,' wa ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serizawa, Keisuke Japanese designers 1895 births 1984 deaths People from Shizuoka (city) Living National Treasures of Japan Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th class Mingei Artists from Shizuoka Prefecture 20th-century Japanese artists 20th-century textile artists Japanese textile artists 19th-century Japanese people