At a time when small businesses are struggling to remain open, and are disappearing at an alarming rate, one artist has dedicated his career to making works which feature the traditional businesses of Japan. Some of which are hundreds of years old.
Katsuyuki Nishijima is a Japanese woodblock print artist who has dedicated his artistic career to preserving the facades of local businesses in Kyoto. His woodblock prints depict shops from as early as the Edo period (1603-1848), to as recent as the present-day. Nishijima was born in 1945 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, in Japan. At the age of 19, he trained as a woodblock print artist with the publisher Mikumo (美雲), in Kyoto. During this time is when he gained an interest in making block prints. His modern but traditional print designs are a part of the Sōsaku-hanga Japanese print movement. All of the woodblocks are carved and printed by Nishijima himself, which is a key characteristic of this art movement.
Nishijima also worked as a Japanese block print instructor at the Uchida Art Company. He taught design, woodblock carving, and printing workshops. He has also experimented with Katazome stencil printing and various other forms of printmaking during his career. Katsuyuki Nishijima’s woodblock prints are often instantly recognizable by their muted color pallets, geometric compositions, and focus on architecture in, and around Kyoto. This online exhibition showcases some of his finest works, which are available through the Verne Collection.
We hope you enjoy the works in this online-exclusive exhibition. If you enjoy these works, you may also like the works of: Clifton Karhu, Ted Colyer, Kiyoshi Saito, Tim Callaghan, and John Einarsen.
