Biography
Takeji Asano (浅野竹二, 1900–1999) devoted nearly a century of life to the sosaku-hanga ideal that an artist should design, carve, and print every image with his own hands. Born in Kyoto in 1900, he studied painting at the Kyoto City School of Arts and Crafts and later at the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting, where he trained under the nihonga painter Tsuchida Bakusen. By the mid-1920s Asano had turned from brush painting to woodblock printmaking, drawn to the creative-print philosophy championed by the Nihon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai.
Asano settled into a lifelong practice of documenting Kyoto's temples, gardens, streets, and seasonal festivals. His best-known prints depict landmarks such as Kinkaku-ji reflected in its mirror pond, the vermilion torii tunnel at Fushimi Inari, snow blanketing the grounds of Nanzen-ji, and cherry blossoms along the Philosopher's Path. He favored a clean, unhurried line and areas of flat, saturated color that owed as much to traditional yamato-e sensibility as to the European modernism filtering into Japanese art schools during the Taisho era. Many of his compositions place a single architectural subject against open sky, allowing the carved line and the texture of handmade washi to carry the image.
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s Asano exhibited with the Nihon Hanga Kyokai and the annual Bunten and Nitten government-sponsored salons. He also produced a steady stream of small-edition prints sold directly to collectors and tourists visiting Kyoto, helping to popularize the city's image abroad during the postwar decades. His output remained remarkably consistent across the Showa era: calm, luminous views of a Kyoto that was rapidly modernizing around him.
Asano continued carving and printing well into his nineties, a testament to the physical discipline that self-printing demands. He died in 1999 at the age of ninety-nine, having witnessed the entire arc of modern Japanese printmaking from the movement's early battles for recognition through its international triumph. His prints are held in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, and the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1900–1999
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Sōsaku-hanga
Frequently Asked Questions
Takeji Asano (浅野竹二, 1900–1999) devoted nearly a century of life to the sosaku-hanga ideal that an artist should design, carve, and print every image with his own hands. Born in Kyoto in 1900, he studied painting at the Kyoto City School of Arts and Crafts and later at the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting, where he trained under the nihonga painter Tsuchida Bakusen. By the mid-1920s Asano had turned from brush painting to woodblock printmaking, drawn to the creative-print philosophy championed by the Nihon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai.
Takeji Asano was active from 1900 to 1999. They were associated with the Sōsaku-hanga movement.
Takeji Asano's work was shaped by the Sōsaku-hanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Sōsaku-hanga: The "creative prints" movement (c.
Takeji Asano's prints frequently feature temples & shrines, snow scenes, landscapes, rivers & lakes, architecture, rain.
Original prints by Takeji Asano can be found in collections including Ukiyo-e.org (via Artelino), ukiyo-e.org.
Based on 714 auction results from LiveAuctioneers (418 since 2022). Typical prints sell for $130-$275, with a median of $200. Recent market (2022-2024) shows a median of $200. Premium examples can reach $475+ while exceptional pieces have sold for up to $220000.
