Nishimura Sōzaemon (西村藏版) (genre 1855 – 1935)

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Biography:

Kyoto publisher not listed in Marks.

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There is an interesting entry in Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji Period From the Khalili Collection by Joe Earle on page 387. "In 1878 Nishimura Sozaemon [1855-1935], another Kyoto fabric entrepreneur, took a major step along the road to a more pictorial approach to textile design with the development of birodo Yuzen, usually referred to in English as "cut velvet." In this process, a design is hand-painted onto an uncut piece of velvet, using traditional resist dyeing methods, and then certain areas of the looped pile are cut, giving a textured relief effect. Some early examples of the technique, which was clearly intended to imitate conventional painting on paper or silk, depict well-established bird and flower subjects..."

In Kyoto modern textiles, 1868-1940 it is says: "It should be especially noted, that Nishimura Sōzaemon, a twelfth generation descendant in the Chisō family of dyers..."

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Nishimura Sōzaemon came from a long line of Kyoto dyers. They established their firm, Chikiriya (千切り屋) in 1555, Kōji (弘治) during the Muromachi period.