Shikō Munakata

The recorded working language is Japanese. Places of work recorded in the authority are Tokyo. Residence is recorded at Fukumitsu. Employment is recorded with Bunka Gakuin. Work by Shikō Munakata is recorded in the collections of Minneapolis Institute of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Auckland Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria and Museum of Modern Art. Distinctions recorded are Order of Culture, Person of Cultural Merit, Asahi Prize and honorary citizenship.

• Name — Munakata Shikō • Birth Name — Munakata Shikō • Born — September 5, 1903 • Birthplace — Aomori, Japan • Died — 13 September 1975 • Place of death — Tokyo, Japan • Field — Painter, Printmaker • Movement — sōsaku-hanga, folk arts movement • Notable Works — Ten Great Disciples of the Buddha • Awards — Order of Culture, many others

Munakata was born in the city of Aomori in Aomori Prefecture in northern Honshū as the third of 15 children to a local blacksmith. Due to the impoverished circumstances of his family, he had only an elementary school education; however, he exhibited a passion for art from early childhood. In third grade, he began illustrating kites for his classmates. Munakata later claimed that his artistic endeavors were sparked by Vincent van Gogh's (1853–1890) Still Life: Vase with Five Flowers, a reproduction of which was given to him by his teacher when he was 17. Upon viewing of van Gogh's artwork, young Munakata decided that he wanted to become the “van Gogh of Aomori”. In 1924, Munakata moved to Tokyo in order to fulfill his decision to become a professional painter in oils. Munakata's early career was not without obstacles. Unable to sell his paintings, he was forced to repair shoes and sell nattō part-time to survive. He was rejected by the Bunten (The Japan Art Academy Exhibition) four times, until one of his paintings was finally accepted in 1928. However, by this date, his attention had shifted away from oil painting to the traditional Japanese art of woodblock printing.

After World War II, Munakata produced numerous woodblock prints, paintings in watercolor and oil, calligraphy, and illustrated books. He moved his studio to Kamakura in Kanagawa to be closer to Tokyo. Shortly after the war, in 1945, he created the Shokei sho hangakan series, a set of twenty-four images intended to be mounted as a pair of six-panel folding screens, made as a tribute to his friend and patron, the potter Kawai Kanjirō. In this series he first developed the technique that became distinctive for the rest of his career: bold black outlines were carved in reserve and hand-colored on the reverse of the paper in blue, purple, or light brown, letting the fluid colors bleed through to the front. In 1952 Munakata joined Umetaro Azechi and Kihei Sasajima in founding the Nihon Hanga-in, also known as Banga-in. He traveled overseas to the United States and Europe in 1959, giving lectures at a number of overseas universities. His works received critical acclaim both in Japan and overseas, and he received many prizes. Munakata was awarded the "Prize of Excellence" at the Second International Print Exhibition in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1952, and first prize at the São Paulo Bienal Exhibition in Brazil in 1955, followed by Grand Prix at the Venice Biennale in 1956. He was awarded the Order of Culture, the highest honor in the arts, by the Japanese government in 1970. • Illustration — Munakata Shiko Memorial Museum of Art in Aomori Munakata died at his home in Tokyo. His grave is in Aomori, and his gravestone is patterned after that of Vincent van Gogh.

"Like the vastness of space, like a universe unlimited, untold, unattainable, and inscrutable- that is the woodcut." "The nature of the woodcut is such, that even a mistake in its carving will not prevent it from its true materialization." "The concern that it be ugly is characteristic of human thoughts and not of the woodcut itself." "It is inherent in the woodcut that it can never be ugly" "The woodcut, unconcerned with good and evil, with ideas, with differences, tells us that it consists of truth alone," "It is precisely the beauty of this which will further enlarge the limitlessness of the world of beauty." (from Shiko Munakata, Munakata: the “Way” of the Woodcut, Brooklyn, Pratt Adlib Press, 1961).

One of Munakata’s works, “Benzaiten”, appeared on a 1982 commemorative postage stamp issued by the Japanese government as part of a series on modern Japanese art.

• Illustration — Woodcut Screens of Shiko Munakata at the Brooklyn Museum, January 9 - February 18, 1968. • Illustration — Woodcut Screens of Shiko Munakata at the Brooklyn Museum, January 9 - February 18, 1968. • Illustration — Woodcut Screens of Shiko Munakata at the Brooklyn Museum, January 9 - February 18, 1968.

Shikō Munakata is recorded as having received Order of Culture, Person of Cultural Merit and Asahi Prize. Identity and origins. The authorities additionally record the headings Munakata Shikō, Zakkedô, Shiko Munakata, Shikô Munakata and Munakata Shiko. His recorded language was Japanese. His recorded confession was Jōdo Shinshū.

Munakata took many of his themes from the traditions of his native Aomori in northern Japan, including the local people's love of nature and folk festivals such as the Nebuta festival. Munakata's belief and philosophy were engrained in Shin Buddhism. His prints feature images of floating nude females representing Shinto kami that inhabit trees and plants. Inspired by poetry of the Heian period, Munakata also incorporated poetry and calligraphy into his prints. This extremely shortsighted artist brought his face almost into contact with the wood when he carved. In his words, “the mind goes and the tool walks alone”. Munakata carved with amazing speed and scarcely used any preparatory sketches, producing spontaneous vitality that is unique to his prints. During the early stage of his career, Munakata worked exclusively on black-and-white prints. Later on, upon the advice of Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961), Munakata colored his prints from the back, a technique called urazaishiki.

Unlike Kōshirō Onchi (1891–1955), father of the sōsaku-hanga movement, who advocated artists’ expression of the "self" in creating prints, Munakata disclaimed all responsibilities as creator of art. For Munakata, artistic creation is one but many of the manifestations of nature's force and beauty, which is inherent in the woodblock itself. Munakata called prints itaga instead of hanga, emphasizing the material instead of the process of printing, whereas ita refers to the woodblock itself). From 1943 he had similarly begun using the term banga in place of the more common hanga, a further sign of his search for a personal vocabulary to distinguish his production from that of other sōsaku-hanga artists.. In Munakata's words, "the essence of hanga lies in the fact that one must give in to the ways of the board... there is a power in the board, and one cannot force the tool against that power." Munakata's subject matter and artistic style are very much characterized by his philosophy on the supremacy of the woodblock material and nature's inherent force and beauty.