Biography
Kyo Karasuma (born 1955; 烏丸 京) is a Tokyo-born, Tokyo-based Japanese printmaker who specializes in mezzotint. He produces his copperplate mezzotints entirely himself — drawing, engraving, and printing each work (自画・自刻・自摺) — using the technique's velvety blacks and graduated grays to draw out a sense of mystery and the subtle strangeness glimpsed in the small rifts of familiar daily life.
Karasuma has studied mezzotint under the printmaker Ikuta Koji (生田宏司) since 2009. He is a member of the Japan Print Association (日本版画協会) and the Japan Artists' Association (日本美術家連盟), and in 2023 he joined the Print Saurus International Print Exchange Association (プリントザウルス国際版画交流協会), a member-directory and exchange organization that connects Japanese printmakers to international print-exchange programs.
Mezzotint is one of the most demanding intaglio techniques: the entire copper plate is first roughened with a rocker so that it would print a dense, velvety black, and the image is then developed by burnishing that ground back toward the light. Working within this discipline, Karasuma has taken up subjects ranging from Buddhist sculpture to urban and landscape scenes, often with a quiet, slightly wry sensibility.
His prints have been recognized in juried exhibitions, including a series of awards at the Ueno Forest Art Museum's "Depicting Japan's Nature" exhibitions — the Fuji Television Prize (2016), the Nippon Broadcasting Prize (2019), the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Prize (2020), and the Hyogo Prefecture Governor's Prize (2021). He has long been a regular participant in the CWAJ Print Show, the annual exhibition of contemporary Japanese prints organized by the College Women's Association of Japan, including its 68th edition, held in October 2025 at the Hillside Forum in Daikanyama, Tokyo.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1955
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Urban Scenes
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Kyo Karasuma (born 1955; 烏丸 京) is a Tokyo-born, Tokyo-based Japanese printmaker who specializes in mezzotint. He produces his copperplate mezzotints entirely himself — drawing, engraving, and printing each work (自画・自刻・自摺) — using the technique's velvety blacks and graduated grays to draw out a sense of mystery and the subtle strangeness glimpsed in the small rifts of familiar daily life.
Kyo Karasuma was active born in 1955. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Kyo Karasuma's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Kyo Karasuma's prints frequently feature urban scenes.