Yoshikawa Kanpō or Kampō (吉川観方) (artist 1894 – 1979)

Alternate names: Yoshikawa Kenjirō (吉川健二郎)
Yoyo Kokirō
Eboshi Suikan
Kimama Zukin

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Biography:

Kanpō can also be spelled as 'Kampō'. He died on April 16, 1979.

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"Born in Kyoto, Yoshikawa Kenjirō studied Nihonga painting with Nishibori Tōsui and also trained with Takeuchi Seihō... He later enrolled in the Kyoto School of Painting, from which he graduated in 1920. As a print designer Kanpō's significance lie in his role as one of the earliest (if not the earliest) Kamigata shin hanga artists to work in the actor genre. His actor prints of the early 1920s were also all published by the Kyoto-based Satō Shōtarō, active from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s."

Quoted from: The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, p. 172.

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"Yoshikawa Kanpô (吉川観方; given name Kenjirô), 1894-1979, was born in Kyoto made his name as a Nihonga-style painter and writer, as well as a stage designer and advisor to the Shôchiku kabuki theatrical company in Kyoto. He studied Nihonga painting with Nishibori Tôsui (dates unknown) beginning in 1901 and later with Takeuchi Seihô (1864-1942). By the time he graduated with honors from the Kyoto Specialist School of Painting in 1918 and a graduate degree in 1920 from the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting, he had already begun exhibiting with the Bunten in 1917. Evetually [sic] stopped exhibiting paintings, but continued to accept commissions while also briefly designing Shin Hanaga-style woodblock prints, among these a famous series of actor portraits published by Satô Shôtarô between 1922 and 1924, and apparently ceased making any more prints after 1925. He also produced landscapes (fûkeiga) and pictures of beautiful women (bijinga). Yoshikawa then concentrated on other pursuits, including playing the biwa (琵琶) and kokyû (胡弓). He authored several books on topics such as kabuki, Japanese dolls, and Japanese customs (including Faces in color prints, Contemporary actors on stage, Collected famous treasured dolls, Mirrors and designs, History of changes in sash design, and History of Japanese folk customs) and two illustrated volumes on ghosts (1925)."

Quoted from Osakaprints.com.

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The curatorial notes at the British Museum say:

"Print artist and intellectual. Also often known as Kenjiro, Kanpo was born in Kyoto, where he lived all his life. He studied native-style painting at the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting from 1914 to 1918 (1914-20 according to Stephens) and later with Takeuchi Seiho (1864-1944). As a young man he was deeply interested in 'Ukiyo-e' prints and the Kabuki theatre, and began to design small printed actor portraits about 1916, moving on to larger subjects with mica grounds in 1918. He became adviser on design to the Shochiku Kabuki Company on his graduation, and eventually a writer on 'Ukiyo-e', traditional music, history of costume, the theatre and old Kyoto. He was commissioned by the Kyoto publisher Sato Shotaro to produce designs of Kabuki actors for prints, which were published around 1923-4. He designed a few other prints, especially townscapes of Kyoto, also in the 1920s. In 1925 he held a joint exhibition with Miki Suizan (q.v.). After this he did no prints but became increasingly well known as author, collector, antiquarian and connoisseur of the theatre, producing paintings only on commission. His publications included 'Nihon fuzoku-shi' ('History of Japanese Folk Customs') and 'Obi no hensen-shi' ('History of Changes in Sash Design'). His collection of paintings is now divided between Nara Prefectural Museum and the Kyoto City Archives."