Sasajima Kihei

In 1949 Sasajima created a book of prints based on Chikamatsu's play written in 1721, The Woman-Killer and the Hell of Oil (Onnagoroshi abura no jigoku 女殺油地獄) which he submitted to the 23rd Kokugakai (National Picture Association) exhibition.

In explaining how he was trying to achieve his own style, after studying with two distinctive print-making artists, Sasajima told Oliver Statler in 1955: “My problem now is to stand on my own. I want to try to find a Japanese expression for the Japanese.  It’s lamentable that everybody is traveling the same path. You can’t tell whether much of the work is done by a Japanese or a Westerner.”

In 1948, Sasajima became a member of the Nihon Hanga Kyōkai (Japan Print Association) but left that group to join Munakata in 1952 to form the Nihon Hanga-in (Japanese Woodblock Print Academy). He became internationally known through the publication of Statler’s 1956 book Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn, his participation in the 1957 exhibition of contemporary Japanese prints in Yugoslavia and his participation in the Tokyo Biennales starting in 1957. He was a long-time contributor to the annual print exhibition of the College Women’s Association of Japan (CWAJ) and his work was including in their celebratory 60th anniversary show in 2015.

In commenting on Sasajima’s work, Statler wrote: “Sasajima has made some small color prints, usually restricting himself to three or four colors, but most of his work in in black and white. He uses a line that is longer than Hiratsuka’s and closer to the brush stroke. He believes that this has been derived from his study of Munakata, calligraphy, and the nanga painters of both China and Japan…”

In 1959 he became ill and lost the strength to rub the impression into the paper with the traditional baren. As a result, and inspired by stone-rubbing, he developed a new technique called takuzuri which consists of forcing paper into a deep-cut block with a press and dabbing the raised areas with ink by use of pads.3

In Images of a Changing World: Japanese Prints of the Twentieth Century, the takuzuri technique is described in some detail as follows:

From 1962 he worked primarily on religious themes, including many explorations of Mount Fuji, the Sacred Mountain, and various Buddhist deities. His book of essays on art, Sasajima Kihei gabunshū, Ichijin (笹島喜平画文集・一塵), was published by Tokyo publisher Bijutsu Shuppansha in 1967. 

Sasajima experienced numerous health problems in the 1970s, including stomach ulcers, and passed away from respiratory failure at the age 87 on May 31, 1993. During the last twenty years of his life, his work was both exhibited frequently, including shows at the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo, and published in books, such as the 1980 publication from Kodansha, 笹島喜平版画集 Collection of Prints by Kihei Sasajima. In 1990, Sasajima was chosen by Tochigi Prefecture as a Person of Cultural Merit, winning the Lifetime Achievement Award.5 

Artists who studied with Sasajima include Ōhashi Hiroaki 大橋弘明 (1931-?), Tani Akira 谷光 (1920-?), Kimura Yoshiharu 木村義治(b. 1934), Hirota Shigeru (1938-?) and Kaneko Kunio 金子邦生 (b. 1949).

Today the artist’s work can be seen at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Sasajima Kihei Hall and in the collections of many museums including the British Museum, Hamamatsu Municipal Museum, Japan; Oxford University, England; Berlin Oriental Art Museum; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Tochigi Prefectural Museum; The Art Institute of Chicago and the Harvard Art Museum.

Signatures and Seals of the Artist

Prints in Collection

click on thumbnail for print details