Ito Nisaburo

Nisaburo Ito was born in Kyoto, with conflicting reports stating his birth year as 1910 per Helen Merritt's standard reference book (referenced in the bibliography below), while other sources suggest the year 1905.

Ito received artistic training under Tsuchida Bakusen at the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting. The artist's portfolio comprises a substantial number of designs, exhibiting a distinct style in his prints. Some designs adopt a "minimalistic" approach in composition and color palette, drawing influence from traditional Chinese and Japanese paintings. Others resonate more with the popular artisan designs within the shin hanga style associated with Uchida and Tokuriki Tomikichiro.

Itō Nisaburō (also written Nizaburō), best known for the shin hanga woodblock prints he designed for the prolific Kyoto publishing house Uchida Publishing, was also a talented painter in a style that combined Western yōga and Japanese nihonga painting techniques.

In addition to creating quite a few prints for Uchida, he also worked with the print publishing company Matsukyū, established by the Kyoto artist Tokuriki Tomikichirō (1902-2000), and may have self-published several woodblock prints.

This title gives a fascinating view of the print creating process.