Edutainment > Japanese, Chinese and some Western Artists

Kokei TSURUYA  -  born 1946      Modern Sharaku

Kokei Tsuruya

Kokei Tsuruya born 1946

Tsuruya Kokei was born in Chikasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture. Although he was born into a family of artists, he never had any formal art training nor the intention to become an artist until he was 32 years old. Then he had the idea of making actor portraits in a modified style of Sharaku. After a long series of commercial failures, he finally became successful in cooperation with the Kabuki-za, the old Kabuki theater in Tokyo. Kokei's print editions were small. It took him 40 days to complete one edition of 72 sheets - from design to carving to printing. In late 2000 Kokei Tsuruya announced that he would never make actor prints again. In the months ahead, the artist had been hit by a sad personal tragedy.
Archive  |  Biography Kokei Tsuruya  |  Sharaku Toshusai

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Literature sources used for artist biographies:

• Merritt, Helen and Yamada, Nanako, "Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints 1900-1975", University of Hawaii Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8248-1732-X
• Lane, Richard, "Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print", Fribourg, 1978, ISBN 0-914427-54-7
• Laurance, P.Roberts, "A Dictionary of Japanese Artists", John Weatherhill Inc., New York, 1976
• Frances Blakemore "Who is Who in Modern Japanese Prints", John Weatherhill, New York and Tokyo, 1975. ISBN 0-8348-0101-9
• Annual CWAJ catalogs