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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Shin Hanga > Toraji Ishikawa - 1875-1964

Toraji Ishikawa

The Heroine Toragozen in the Play Soga
from The Complete Works of Chikamatsu

Although Toraji Ishikawa was a painter and printmaker with a wide variety of subjects and a focus on landscapes, everybody knows him mainly for a series of ten prints in Shin Hanga style, published in 1934 and titled Ten tpyes of female nudes.

A Painter and Printmaker from Kochi

Toraji Ishikawa was born in Kochi. He studied art with Koyama Shotaro. In 1902 the young artist traveled through the United States and Europe for two years.

Back in Japan, Toraji Ishikawa founded Taiheiyogakai, an artist association of Western style painters. He exhibited in all major Japanese exhibitions since the 1920s. In 1923 he contributed to the supplement of Dai Chikamatsu Zenshu - The Complete Works of Chikamatsu.

Ten Types of Female Nudes

Toraji Ishikawa

Relaxing
from Ten Types of Female Nudes

In 1934 Toraji Ishikawa created the famous series of ten chubby female nudes. People seem to know him only by these prints as if he had not created anything else in his life.

The irony is that Toraji was more of a Western style painter. These ten prints - with one exception - are more Japanese in style than anything else the artist had done before. The print titled Dance is a rather modern design of a voluptuous nude striptease dancer in high-heels. It is in contrast to the other 9 prints showing nudes in the seclusion of their intimate privacy - playing with pets, reading a book or doing their toilette in a modern bathroom.

Imperial Award

Toraji Ishikawa

Dance
from Ten Types of Female Nudes

In 1943 Toraji Ishikawa became head of the Pacific Art School. After World War II, he was active at the Tokyo University of Education. In 1953 he received the Imperial Award of the Japan Art Academy.

Literature sources used for this Toraji Ishikawa 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
• Helen Merritt, "Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints - The early years", published by University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1990, ISBN 0-8248-1200-X
• The Female Image - 20th century prints of Japanese beauties, ABE PUBLISHING LTD., Tokyo & Hotei Publishing Leiden, ISBN 90-74822-20-7

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