Select Category
Select Mega Category
Search
  Index of all Articles

Edutainment > Tomoo Inagaki - 1902-1980

Tomoo Inagaki is an important Sosaku Hanga artist. After World War II he found an nice little market niche. He specialized in cat prints in modern design.

First Publication: July 2002

Latest Update: April 2013

Influenced by Onchi and Hiratsuka

Tomoo Inagaki was born in Tokyo where he attended a commercial highschool. At highschool and later as an employee of a steel company he dabbled as a self-taught artist in oil painting and in print making.

Koshiro Onchi had published a magazine about poetry and prints, called Poems and Hanga. The young Tomoo was impressed by the modern prints published in this magazine - many by Koshiro Onchi and Unichi Hiratsuka. It gave him the last kick to make a decision for an artist career. He quit his job at the steel company and attended a commercial art class for two years.

As a graduate of a commercial highschool, Inagaki had a natural sense for the financial aspects of life. He decided to go into commercial arts instead of becoming a fine but starving artist. He soon established his own commercial art studio in Tokyo.

Inagaki could make a living with his commercial design studio. This enabled him to continue to work as a print maker. But World War II put an end to his design studio.

Contemporary Japanese Art after the War

Cat Calling Kittens
Cat Calling Kittens - Tomoo Inagaki - 1902-1980
Tomoo Inagaki - 1902-1980
Woodblock Print
Enlarge Image

After the end of the Pacific war the contemporary Japanese artists suddenly had a chance to make a living from selling their art. A new market had risen out of the ashes. The American soldiers of the occupation force had not only their pockets full of dollars, but also a good sense for fine Asian art.

Some of them became intrigued by Japanese art and developed into avid art and print collectors. Others simply needed a few nice presents for their loved ones at home.

Inagaki was one of the contemporary artists who became popular in the 50s. He was invited to the International print biennales in Paris, Tokyo and Lugano.

Tomoo Inagaki - the Cat Artist

Cat and Tulip
Cat and Tulip - Tomoo Inagaki - 1902-1980
Tomoo Inagaki - 1902-1980
Woodblock Print
Enlarge Image

By now the artist had found a style of his own and a subject that became his brand recognition - cats. Inagaki displayed them in modern, simplified forms. You could call it typical for the 50s and 60s - kind of close to semi-abstraction. His designs reduced a natural subject to its essentials.

The results are astonishing. His cats, although transformed into very basic forms, are very alive and individual. Typical Inagaki prints show smart cats, sleepy cats, fighting cats, cunning cats or humorous cats. And someone with a little bit of own experience with cats, will immediately recognize the great mastership in the poignant depiction of the typical behavior, gesture and nature of these little felines.

It is hardly necessary to mention that the artist was a cat lover and had cats of his own.

Inagaki prints are usually kept in brown and gray colors, sometimes brushed up with a bit of orange or red. Oliver Statler, who interviewed the artist in the 50s, reports that Inagaki made his designs in a rather spontaneous way from a basic draft.

More about Tomoo Inagaki prints

81 sold object(s) by Tomoo Inagaki 1902-1980 in our Art ArchiveGo to the Archive of sold items.

2 signature(s) by Tomoo Inagaki in our Signature DatabaseGo to signatures of Japanese prints.

Other Pages Related to Tomoo Inagaki prints

Author: Dieter Wanczura

Literature sources used for this Tomoo Inagaki biography

  • Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, "Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975", published by University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, ISBN 0-8248-1732-X
  • Oliver Statler, "Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn", C. Tuttle, Tokyo, 1956, ISBN No. is 0-8048-0406-0

The images on this web site are the property of the artist(s) and or the artelino GmbH and/or a third company or institution. Reproduction, public display and any commercial use of these images, in whole or in part, require the expressed written consent of the artist(s) and/or the artelino GmbH.

Google
  Web  www.artelino.com