was the

art-name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. Th ...

of a

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 ...

artist and the leading master of the ''

bijin-ga is a generic term for pictures of beautiful women () in Japanese art, especially in woodblock printing of the ukiyo-e genre. Definition defines as a picture that simply "emphasizes the beauty of women", and the ''Shincho Encyclopedia of W ...

'' genre in the Taishō and Shōwa eras. His legal name was Kaburaki Ken'ichi. The artist himself used the reading "Kaburaki", but many Western (and some Japanese) sources transliterate it as "Kaburagi".

Biography

Kaburaki was born in

Kanda Kanda may refer to: People * Kanda (surname) *Kanda Bongo Man (born 1955), Congolese soukous musician Places * Kanda, Tokyo, an area in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan **Kanda Station (Tokyo), a railway station in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo * Kanda River, a ri ...

district of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

to an affluent and literate family. His father was the founder and president of the ''

Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.4 ...

'' newspaper, and a writer of popular novels. In 1891, at the age of 13, Kaburaki was sent to become a pupil of the ''

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

'' artists Mizuno Toshikata and Taiso Yoshitoshi. His first job was as an illustrator for '' Yamato Shinbun,'' a Tokyo newspaper founded by his father. When he was sixteen, his father went bankrupt and the family had to sell their home. Kaburaki initially made his living as an

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

, producing frontispiece illustrations called ''

kuchi-e are frontispieces of books, especially woodblock printed frontispieces for Japanese romance novels and literary magazines published from the 1890s to the 1910s.Newland, p. 463 They usually portrayed women and were bound to the book's spine or ...

'', illustrating the titles of popular

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s. His works were highly praised by noted author

Kyōka Izumi , real name , was a Japanese people, Japanese author of novels, short stories, and kabuki plays who was active during the Empire of Japan, prewar period. Kyōka's writing differed greatly from that of the naturalist writers who dominated the li ...

, who insisted that his novels be illustrated by Kaburaki. However, Kaburaki's first and foremost interest was in painting. In 1901, he helped create the , an art group dedicated to reviving and popularizing the ''

'' (images of beautiful women) genre. When the government-sponsored ''

Bunten The is a Japanese art exhibition established in 1907. The exhibition consists of five art faculties: Japanese Style and Western Style Painting, Sculpture, Craft as Art, and Sho (calligraphy). During each exhibition, works of the great masters are ...

'' exhibitions were started in 1907, he began to paint full-time, winning several prizes. In 1915, his work ''Murasame'' won first prize at the 9th ''Bunten'' Exhibition. In 1917, together with Hirafuku Hyakusui, Matsuoka Eikyu, Kikkawa Reika and Yuki Somei, he helped found the ''Kinreisha'', a ''Nihonga'' association training promising young artists, including

Kawase Hasui was an artist, one of modern Japan's most important and prolific printmakers. He was a prominent designer of the '' shin-hanga'' ("new prints") movement, whose artists depicted traditional subjects with a style influenced by Western art. Like ma ...

. When

Watanabe Shōzaburō Watanabe ( and other variantsSee #Miscellaneous) is a Japanese surname derived from the noble and samurai Watanabe clan, a branch of the Minamoto clan, descending from the Emperor Saga (786-842), the 52nd Emperor of Japan, and refers to a locat ...

started an export

woodcut print Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

business, he needed many talented artists to make print designs appealing to western audiences. Kaburaki's group became a recruiting center for Watanabe. Kaburaki organized exhibitions with works of his students and introduced his best students to Watanabe. Next to Watanabe himself, it was probably Kiyokata Kaburaki, who had the greatest influence on the development and promotion of the ''

shin-hanga was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized the traditional ''ukiyo-e'' art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). It maintained the traditional ''ukiyo-e'' co ...

'' ("new prints") movement. Alongside Kawase Hasui, artists such as Itō Shinsui, Shiro Kasamasu, Yamakawa Shūhō, Torii Kotondo and Terashima Shimei were trained by Kaburaki and then introduced to Watanabe. When Kaburaki had reached his late 40s, he was well established and a highly respected artist. In 1929 he became a member of the Imperial Fine Art Academy (''Teikoku Bijutsuin''). His portrait of ''

rakugo is a form of ''yose'', which is itself a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone sits on a raised platform, a . Using only a and a as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long ...

'' actor

San'yūtei Enchō was a Japanese author and rakugo performer of the late Edo and early Meiji eras. Notable works include Japanese horror ("kaidan") classics: ''Kaidan botan dōrō'' (based on , and '' Shincho Kasane ga Fuchi'' (on which many Japanese horror fi ...

(1930) has been registered as an Important Cultural Property (ICP) by the

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

. In 1938 he was appointed to the Art Committee of the Imperial Household. He received the official position of

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

in 1944. In 1946, he was asked to be one of the judges for the first post-war '' Nitten'' Exhibition. In 1954, he received the

Order of Culture The is a Japanese order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japan's art, literature, science, technology, or anything related to culture in general; recipien ...

. His house in Tokyo was burned down during the

firebombing of Tokyo The was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and he relocated to

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

, where he lived until his death. Kaburaki died in 1972 at the age of 93. His grave is at the

Yanaka Cemetery is a large cemetery located north of Ueno in Yanaka 7-chome, Taito, Tokyo, Japan. The Yanaka sector of Taito is one of the few Tokyo neighborhoods in which the old Shitamachi atmosphere can still be felt. The cemetery is famous for its beautifu ...

in Tokyo. His house in Kamakura has been transformed into the Kaburaki Kiyokata Memorial Museum, displaying many of his works, and preserving his studio.

Philately

Two of Kaburaki's works have been selected as the subject of

commemorative postage stamp A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event, person, or object. The ''subject'' of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike de ...

s by the Japanese government: * 1971: ''Tsukiji Akashimachi'' (1927), for the 1971 Philatelic Week * 1980: ''Ichiba'' (1940), as part of the Modern Art series

References

* Conant, Ellen P., Rimer, J. Thomas, Owyoung, Stephen. ''Nihonga: Transcending the Past: Japanese-Style Painting, 1868-1968''. Weatherhill (1996). * Kimura, Ihee. ''Four Japanese painters: Taikan Yokoyama, Gyokudo Kawai, Shoen Uemura, Kiyokata Kaburaki'' (JPS picture books). Japan Photo Service (1939). ASIN: B000888WYA * Shiokawa, Kyoko. ''Shisei no bunjin Kaburaki Kiyokata''. Dai Nihon Kaiga (1991).

External links

Kaburaki Kiyokata Memorial Museum (Japanese site)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaburagi, Kiyokata 1973 deaths 1878 births Court painters Nihonga painters Artists from Tokyo People of Shōwa-period Japan Recipients of the Order of Culture 20th-century Japanese painters Imperial household artists Artists from Tokyo Metropolis