Kansuke Morioka

Kansuke Morioka (born 1941, Aichi Prefecture, Japan) is a senior Japanese contemporary printmaker working primarily in silkscreen, currently still based in his birth prefecture of Aichi. He trained at Aichi Education University (Aichi Kyoiku Daigaku), the regional teacher-training university whose fine-art program has produced a number of working printmakers active in central Japan. Now in his early eighties, Morioka represents the senior generation of regional Japanese printmakers active in the postwar period and continuing into the 2020s.

His recent practice, as documented in the 68th CWAJ Print Show 2025, presents silkscreen compositions in the medium-large format range — exemplified by 'Shima '15-C Goza' (2015, 75 × 53 cm). The 'Shima' (島, 'island') title and the year-and-letter suffix ('15-C, indicating 2015 and a third version) signal an ongoing numbered series organized around island imagery; 'Goza' (ござ) refers to a traditional Japanese woven straw mat, which serves as the visual subject of the print. The combination of island imagery with woven-mat texture suggests a contemplation of traditional Japanese cultural objects rendered through contemporary silkscreen technique.

Morioka's training at Aichi Education University places him in a regional Japanese printmaking lineage that runs through the central Japan teacher-training universities. The regional university printmaking faculties have been important for sustaining Japanese print activity outside the Tokyo-Kyoto axis; printmakers trained at these institutions have tended to remain in their training regions rather than relocate to Tokyo, which has produced a network of regional contemporary print communities including the Aichi-area cohort that Morioka has been part of for over five decades.

The silkscreen technique — also known as serigraphy or screen printing — emerged as a serious print medium in Japanese practice from the 1960s onward, alongside lithography and copperplate intaglio. Morioka's commitment to silkscreen as his principal medium across a long career places him within a particular technical tradition that has been historically associated with poster-and-graphic-design work alongside fine-art printmaking. The medium-large 75 × 53 cm format of his recent print is at the typical scale of mid-career silkscreen practice.

The 2015 dating of the print (a decade before the CWAJ catalogue inclusion) suggests that the 'Shima' series has been an ongoing project for at least a decade. The CWAJ Print Show 2025 inclusion of a 2015 print is unusual within the catalogue, where most works are from 2023-2025; the choice to feature a slightly older print may reflect the 'C' version's particular suitability for the catalogue selection or a continuing availability from the artist's studio.

Within the contemporary Japanese print scene Morioka represents the senior cohort of regional Aichi-area printmakers active across the postwar period. Beyond the CWAJ catalogue entry, biographical detail and a fuller exhibition history are not currently surfaced through public-facing online channels.