Yuji Hiratsuka

Yuji Hiratsuka (平塚雄二, born 1954) is a Japanese-born printmaker and educator who has built a distinguished career bridging Eastern and Western printmaking traditions. Based in the United States since the 1980s, Hiratsuka creates woodblock and mixed-media prints that draw on both his Japanese artistic heritage and his deep engagement with Western modernist aesthetics, resulting in a body of work that occupies a distinctive position in contemporary international printmaking.

Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1954, Hiratsuka studied at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, where he received rigorous training in both traditional Japanese and Western printmaking techniques. His early artistic education grounded him in the fundamentals of mokuhanga — water-based woodblock printing on washi paper using hand-carved blocks and the baren for printing. This traditional foundation would remain central to his practice even as he later expanded his technical repertoire.

In the 1980s, Hiratsuka moved to the United States, eventually settling in Oregon, where he joined the faculty at Oregon State University. The move proved transformative, exposing him to the vibrant American printmaking community and providing the creative space to develop his distinctive hybrid approach. At Oregon State, he established himself as an influential teacher and mentor, introducing generations of American students to Japanese printmaking techniques while continuing to develop his own artistic practice.

Hiratsuka's mature prints are characterized by their layered, densely worked surfaces that combine woodblock printing with other techniques including collagraph, etching, and digital elements. His compositions often feature dreamlike architectural spaces, mysterious interiors, and fantastical landscapes populated by enigmatic figures and objects. The imagery draws on Japanese visual culture — screens, scrolls, temples, gardens — but recombines these elements in surreal, sometimes whimsical arrangements that reflect his bicultural perspective. His color palette tends toward warm earth tones, deep blues, and rich reds, applied in multiple translucent layers that create a sense of visual depth and complexity.

A recurring theme in Hiratsuka's work is the dialogue between tradition and modernity, East and West, the handmade and the mechanical. His prints frequently incorporate textural elements — the grain of wood, the impressions of found objects, the patterns of traditional Japanese textiles — that assert the physical presence of the print as a handmade object even as they explore conceptual and imaginative territory. This tension between craft and concept gives his work an intellectual rigor that has earned him recognition in both the fine art and printmaking worlds.

Hiratsuka has exhibited extensively in the United States, Japan, and internationally. His prints are held in collections including the Portland Art Museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, and numerous university collections. He has received grants and fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission and other organizations, and has been an active participant in international printmaking conferences and workshops.