Biography
Masahiro Masuda (増田正博) is a Japanese mokuhanga printmaker whose work has been recognized through the juried international circuit of the International Mokuhanga Conference (IMC). His prints titled Diary301 and Diary401 were selected for the IMC2017 international juried exhibition associated with the third triennial conference, and he was again selected for the IMC2021 Sumi-Fusion juried exhibition held at the Nara Prefecture Cultural Centre. These selections place him in the cohort of Japan-based contemporary mokuhanga practitioners who have used the IMC platform to circulate their work internationally outside the older shin-hanga publishing system. Beyond the conference record, biographical information that can be verified for the printmaker Masuda is limited. The name Masahiro Masuda is shared in contemporary Japanese art circles by a Tokyo-based silkscreen and mixed-media artist (the maker exhibiting at Marueido Japan and Sezon Art Gallery), and biographical material that occasionally circulates online — birth year, MA from Tokyo University of the Arts, awards including the CAF Art Award and Terada Art Award — refers to that artist and is not securely attached to the mokuhanga printmaker. As a matter of conservative practice the two careers are treated separately by mokuhanga specialists, and only the IMC participation can be assigned with confidence to the woodblock printmaker. The Diary works themselves, as recorded in the IMC2017 exhibition listings, fit the diaristic, accretive mode that has become a recognizable register in contemporary Japanese mokuhanga since the 2010s — small or modest-format prints organized as numbered sequences rather than as discrete pictorial statements, with the print number functioning as both edition reference and time-stamp. The technical environment is that of contemporary water-based woodblock practice as taught at MI Lab and within the IMC training network: hand-carved cherry or shina-plywood blocks, brush-applied pigment, baren impression onto Japanese paper, and small-edition self-publishing in the sōsaku-hanga descent. He has also been documented in connection with the Meiji Jingu Forest Festival of Art, a recurring contemporary-art programme staged within the precincts of the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, where one of his works is held in the festival's documented archive on Google Arts and Culture. Beyond these specific exhibition records the documentary trail goes quiet: birth and death dates are unknown, no school affiliation has been verified, and no monograph or gallery representation has been recovered. He is, in the current state of the published record, best characterized as a working Japanese mokuhanga artist whose practice has been validated through the principal international juried exhibitions of the medium but whose individual career documentation is still in the early stages of being assembled outside of the IMC's exhibition pages and a small number of museum-festival entries.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- SilkscreenAbstract
- Works Indexed
- 25
Frequently Asked Questions
Masahiro Masuda (増田正博) is a Japanese mokuhanga printmaker whose work has been recognized through the juried international circuit of the International Mokuhanga Conference (IMC). His prints titled Diary301 and Diary401 were selected for the IMC2017 international juried exhibition associated with the third triennial conference, and he was again selected for the IMC2021 Sumi-Fusion juried exhibition held at the Nara Prefecture Cultural Centre. These selections place him in the cohort of Japan-based contemporary mokuhanga practitioners who have used the IMC platform to circulate their work internationally outside the older shin-hanga publishing system. Beyond the conference record, biographical information that can be verified for the printmaker Masuda is limited. The name Masahiro Masuda is shared in contemporary Japanese art circles by a Tokyo-based silkscreen and mixed-media artist (the maker exhibiting at Marueido Japan and Sezon Art Gallery), and biographical material that occasionally circulates online — birth year, MA from Tokyo University of the Arts, awards including the CAF Art Award and Terada Art Award — refers to that artist and is not securely attached to the mokuhanga printmaker. As a matter of conservative practice the two careers are treated separately by mokuhanga specialists, and only the IMC participation can be assigned with confidence to the woodblock printmaker. The Diary works themselves, as recorded in the IMC2017 exhibition listings, fit the diaristic, accretive mode that has become a recognizable register in contemporary Japanese mokuhanga since the 2010s — small or modest-format prints organized as numbered sequences rather than as discrete pictorial statements, with the print number functioning as both edition reference and time-stamp. The technical environment is that of contemporary water-based woodblock practice as taught at MI Lab and within the IMC training network: hand-carved cherry or shina-plywood blocks, brush-applied pigment, baren impression onto Japanese paper, and small-edition self-publishing in the sōsaku-hanga descent. He has also been documented in connection with the Meiji Jingu Forest Festival of Art, a recurring contemporary-art programme staged within the precincts of the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, where one of his works is held in the festival's documented archive on Google Arts and Culture. Beyond these specific exhibition records the documentary trail goes quiet: birth and death dates are unknown, no school affiliation has been verified, and no monograph or gallery representation has been recovered. He is, in the current state of the published record, best characterized as a working Japanese mokuhanga artist whose practice has been validated through the principal international juried exhibitions of the medium but whose individual career documentation is still in the early stages of being assembled outside of the IMC's exhibition pages and a small number of museum-festival entries.
Masahiro Masuda'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.
Masahiro Masuda's prints frequently feature silkscreen, abstract.
Masahiro Masuda is a contemporary printmaker working in the mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock) tradition. Their work contributes to the living tradition of Japanese woodblock printing. Prices for contemporary mokuhanga prints range from $100 for smaller works to $1,500 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $180–$600 range. The global mokuhanga community has been growing, with increasing exhibition opportunities and collector interest. Contemporary mokuhanga represents an affordable entry point for collectors.
