Biography
Richard Steiner (born 1939) is an American woodblock-print artist who has lived and worked in Kyoto, Japan, for more than half a century, and is one of the most established Western-born practitioners of mokuhanga, the traditional Japanese water-based woodblock technique. Rather than reproducing what he observes, he has said that he makes 'the prints that occur to my mind and not to my eyes,' and his work is driven by invention and personal imagery more than by direct depiction of the landscape.
Born on October 19, 1939, in Saginaw, Michigan, Steiner worked as a fashion photographer in New York City before traveling to Japan in 1970. After a year teaching English in Hiroshima, he settled permanently in Kyoto in 1972. There he undertook a decade-long apprenticeship in mokuhanga under the printmaker Masahiko Tokumitsu, studying from 1970 to 1980, at the end of which he received the artist name 'Tosai' together with a teaching license; he also received instruction from the shin-hanga printmaker Toshi Yoshida.
Steiner works in the mokuhanga tradition, printing water-based pigments on washi paper by hand, and has spent much of his career refining the tools and techniques of the medium. He has emphasized the treatment of woodblock printing as an art rather than a purely reproductive craft, pursuing imagery of his own conception across a wide range of subjects.
Committed to teaching and to building a community around the medium, Steiner has held long-running instructor positions in Kyoto, including at Kyoto Seika University. In 1997 he founded the Kyoto International Woodprint Association (KIWA), which he led as president and through which he organized international print competitions, and in 2015 he established the Kyoto International Mokuhanga School.
His prints have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions and international group shows across Japan, the United States, Canada, Austria, Australia, and Europe over a career spanning five decades, and his work is held in private and institutional collections. He is recognized as one of the most dedicated and accomplished Western-born artists working in the mokuhanga tradition.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1952
- Nationality
- 🇺🇸United States
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 2
Frequently Asked Questions
Richard Steiner (born 1939) is an American woodblock-print artist who has lived and worked in Kyoto, Japan, for more than half a century, and is one of the most established Western-born practitioners of mokuhanga, the traditional Japanese water-based woodblock technique. Rather than reproducing what he observes, he has said that he makes 'the prints that occur to my mind and not to my eyes,' and his work is driven by invention and personal imagery more than by direct depiction of the landscape.
Richard Steiner was active born in 1952. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Richard Steiner'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.
Richard Steiner's prints frequently feature figures, portraits, bijin-ga.
Original prints by Richard Steiner can be found in collections including ukiyo-e.org.