Okamoto Yoshimi

Okamoto Yoshimi (岡本吉実), the name under which the artist later known professionally as Ryusei Okamoto first worked, is a twentieth-century Japanese woodblock printmaker working in the traditional moku hanga technique. He was born in 1949 in Muroran, on the northern island of Hokkaido. He first studied marine biology, and after graduating from Nihon University he turned to art full-time, training under the printmaker Toshi Yoshida from 1974 to 1984 and so entering the lineage of the celebrated Yoshida family of print artists.

Working in the labor-intensive moku hanga method of hand-carved woodblocks printed with water-based pigments, occasionally supplemented with silkscreen, Okamoto became known above all for sensitive, romantic depictions of young women, the recurring subject of series such as First Love and the mythologically themed White Fox. His teacher helped introduce his work abroad: in 1980 Toshi Yoshida arranged for him to teach at the Mendocino Art Center in California. His prints have entered public collections including the National Museum of Australia and the National Museum of New Zealand.