Biography
Nishiyama Hideo (西山英雄, 1911–1989) was a Japanese painter from Kyoto who worked principally in the nihonga (Japanese-style painting) tradition and also produced woodblock prints. Born in Kyoto Prefecture, he was apprenticed as a teenager to his uncle, the prominent nihonga master Nishiyama Suisho, studying at the Seikosha painting studio, and he later became a member of the Japan Art Academy. He is best known as a painter of bold, powerfully composed landscapes — above all mountain scenery, which earned him a reputation as a "painter of mountains."
Nishiyama's prints, which include a woodblock collection of Japan's national parks, carry the atmospheric sensibility and careful attention to detail of his nihonga training. His landscape subjects show a strong feeling for light, structure, and seasonal mood, translating the monumentality of his painted mountains into the print medium.
Printmaking was a modest part of Nishiyama's output relative to his substantial career as a painter, and his prints are less widely documented than his paintings. They are encountered occasionally through Japanese art dealers and at auction, of interest to collectors who appreciate the meeting of nihonga painting and the woodblock print.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1911–1989
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Shin-hanga
- Works Indexed
- 21
Frequently Asked Questions
Nishiyama Hideo (西山英雄, 1911–1989) was a Japanese painter from Kyoto who worked principally in the nihonga (Japanese-style painting) tradition and also produced woodblock prints. Born in Kyoto Prefecture, he was apprenticed as a teenager to his uncle, the prominent nihonga master Nishiyama Suisho, studying at the Seikosha painting studio, and he later became a member of the Japan Art Academy. He is best known as a painter of bold, powerfully composed landscapes — above all mountain scenery, which earned him a reputation as a "painter of mountains."
Nishiyama Hideo was active from 1911 to 1989. They were associated with the Shin-hanga movement.
Nishiyama Hideo's work was shaped by the Shin-hanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Shin-hanga: ## What is Shin-hanga? Shin-hanga (新版画), literally "new prints," is the early twentieth-century revival of the collaborative Japanese woodblock workshop, organized between roughly 1915 and 1960 by the Tokyo publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885–1962) and a handful of competing houses.
Nishiyama Hideo's prints frequently feature landscapes, seascapes, temples & shrines, gardens, rain, snow scenes.
Original prints by Nishiyama Hideo can be found in collections including Japanese Art Open Database, wbp, ukiyo-e.org.
Woodblock Prints by Nishiyama Hideo (21)
Old castle at Hakone — 箱根の古城
Woodblock print
Yoshino Kumano National Park
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Panorama from Mii Temple in Otsu
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Ise Shima National Park
Woodblock print
Seta Ishiyama
Woodblock print
Kaizu Osaki — 海津大崎の
Woodblock print
Snow at -oka
Woodblock print
Mt Hiei — 比叡
Woodblock print
Maiko Beach
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Seto Inland Sea National Park
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Setting Sun at Iseshima
Woodblock print
No Series Rain At Murotozaki
Woodblock print
Chikubu Island
Woodblock print
Spring at Chomei Temple
Woodblock print
Chikibu Island in Moonlight
Woodblock print
Mt. Aso
Woodblock print
(untitled)
White Beach
Woodblock print
Hikone Castle in Early Summer Rain
Woodblock print
Makino in snow
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Ise Shima National Park
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)