KABURAKI Kiyokata
鏑木清方
- Birth Year
- 1901
- Death Year
- 1974
- Date
- 1939 (reprinted in ca. 1984)
- Technique, Material, Format
- gelatin silver print
- Dimension
- 29.0 x 19.5 cm
- Category
- Photograph or Moving Image by JapanesePhotographer/Artist
- Inventory Number
- 84-PHJ-103
Among the important photo books produced by Kimura Ihee in the pre-war period is Four Japanese Painters (1939, published by the Japan Photo Service, Tokyo). Following on from his earlier Japan Through A Leica (1938), this was his fourth book, and it contains 49 photographs taken with a Leica camera. The subjects are Yokoyama Taikan, Kawai Gyokudo, Uemura Shoen, and Kaburaki Kiyokata, four artists who made Nihonga (modern Japanese-style painting), and each has been photographed in portraits and in other scenes at their studios. Given the book’s text is in English, it appears to have been intended as a means of introducing Japanese culture abroad.
This photograph, which is included in the book, shows Kiyokata at his studio in Yaraicho, perhaps contemplating his artistic vision. Having been appointed a member of the Imperial Arts Academy the previous year, the artist was active at the time in both painting and writing and was reaching the pinnacle of his artistic career.
(KASHIWAGI Tomoh)