Tomikichiro Tokuriki

Tomikichiro Tokuriki (1902–2000) was one of the most prolific Japanese woodblock print artists of the twentieth century, producing an estimated five thousand or more prints during a career that spanned over seventy years. Born into a distinguished Kyoto artisan family with roots stretching back to the Keicho era of the late sixteenth century, Tokuriki worked across both the shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga traditions, becoming best known for his richly colored depictions of Kyoto's temples, shrines, and seasonal landscapes, as well as his celebrated views of Mount Fuji.

Born on March 22, 1902, in Kyoto, Tokuriki was the twelfth-generation representative of a family that had served as the official print artists for the renowned Honganji Temple. His family heritage in the creation of religious art and Buddhist sculpture provided him with an intimate connection to traditional Japanese craftsmanship from his earliest years. He first learned artistic techniques from his grandfather before entering formal education at the Kyoto City School of Fine Arts and Crafts, where he completed a two-year preparatory class focused on Western painting followed by four years of general artistic training. He graduated in 1924. During his time at the school, his teachers included Tsuchida Bakusen, one of Kyoto's most prominent nihonga painters.

While still a student, Tokuriki joined the Hanga Association, where he encountered sosaku-hanga artists including Hiratsuka Un'ichi, Masao Maeda, and Kihachiro Shimozawa. These meetings sparked his passion for creative printmaking. In 1929, he co-founded the Kyoto Sosaku-Hangakai (Kyoto Creative Print Society) alongside Asano Takeji, Asada Benji, and Kawai Unosuke. The following year, he collaborated with Asano and Asada on Creative Prints of Twelve Months in New Kyoto, published by Uchida, one of the first significant publications from the Kyoto sosaku-hanga circle.

Tokuriki's commercial career flourished through his long relationship with the Kyoto publisher Uchida Bijutsu Shoten (Uchida Art), which became his primary publisher for shin-hanga designs. Among the most important works produced through this partnership is the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, published between 1939 and 1941, which presents Japan's iconic mountain from a wide variety of vantage points and seasonal conditions. Initial printings of this series feature the series title in the right margin, while postwar reprints lack this detail. Other significant series for Uchida include Famous Historic Places and Holy Places (1940–1941), Twelve Months of Kyoto (circa 1950), Four Seasons of Tokyo (circa 1960), Mount Fuji in Four Seasons (1950s), and the later New Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

The Twelve Months of Kyoto series exemplifies Tokuriki's deep connection to his native city, depicting beloved landmarks through the cycle of the year: Snow at Byodoin Temple, Plum Blossoms at Kitano Shrine, Fushimi Inari Festival, Arashiyama Park, Yasaka Pagoda, Gion Festival, Daimonji Bonfire from Sanjo Bridge, Moon at Chion-in Gate, and Snow at Kinkakuji, among others. The Four Seasons of Tokyo extended his topographic vision to the capital, with prints of Cherry Blossoms at Asakusa Temple, Rainy Scene of Nijubashi Bridge, Moon at Shinobazu Pond, and Snow at Nihonbashi Bridge.

After the Second World War, Tokuriki established his own publishing company, Matsukyu, which produced and distributed his prints as well as works by other shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga artists. Matsukyu also served as a teaching studio, offering instruction in block carving to artisans and artists, including many foreign students in later decades. This dual role as publisher and educator gave Tokuriki an unusually broad influence on the development of woodblock printmaking in the postwar period.

Tokuriki's artistic production encompassed two distinct streams. His shin-hanga prints, created through the traditional collaborative process with professional carvers and printers, are characterized by soft, pastel-like colors and meticulous renderings of famous Japanese landmarks. His sosaku-hanga works, which he considered his true artistic passion, were self-designed, self-carved, and self-printed, reflecting a more personal and experimental aesthetic. This dual practice placed him at the intersection of Japanese printmaking's two major twentieth-century currents, and he moved freely between them throughout his career.

Tokuriki's style is marked by vibrant color, thoughtful composition, and a deep affection for Japan's architectural and natural heritage. His subjects range from the intimate scale of temple gardens to the grand sweep of Mount Fuji, always rendered with the technical precision that his family's centuries-long artisan tradition had instilled. His shin-hanga prints appealed to international collectors with their accessible beauty and sense of place, while his sosaku-hanga works demonstrated the more personal and expressive possibilities of the medium.

During the 1960s, Tokuriki brought his work to international audiences through exhibitions in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. He continued exhibiting regularly in Tokyo, Osaka, and at Nishi Honganji Temple in Kyoto throughout the following decades. Among his notable students were the artists Daniel Kelly and David Stones, both of whom gained international recognition.

Tokuriki lived to the age of ninety-seven, spending his entire life in Kyoto in a two-hundred-year-old family house with an attached studio. He died on March 1, 2000. His works are held in major collections worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the British Museum in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His extraordinary output and his role in bridging shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga traditions make him one of the most significant figures in the history of twentieth-century Japanese printmaking.