Shiko Munakata1903~1975 棟方志功

Munakata Shiko (1903-1975) was one of Japan’s most celebrated 20th-century printmakers, born in Aomori City. Originally aspiring to be an oil painter, he turned to woodblock printing in 1928 after meeting Hiratsuka Un’ichi and exhibited at the 11th Kokugakai exhibition. Through associations with leaders of the Mingei (folk craft) movement such as Yanagi Soetsu, Kawai Kanjiro, and Hamada Shoji, he developed a highly original visual idiom and from 1942 referred to his works as “hanga” written with characters meaning “board pictures” (板画). He gained international recognition by winning the top printmaking prize at the 1955 Sao Paulo Biennale and the Grand Prize for printmaking at the 1956 Venice Biennale. He received the Order of Culture in 1970.