Arai Yoshimune (新井芳宗, 1863-1941) was a Japanese woodblock illustrator and print designer of the

shin-hanga was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized the traditional '' ukiyo-e'' art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). It maintained the traditional ''ukiyo-e' ...

movement. Much of his work was published by Hasegawa or Nishinomiya.

Family background

Arai Yoshimune was a name he adopted for himself in adulthood. He was the youngest son of the

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

artist Utagawa Yoshimune I, and after his father's death in 1880 he assumed the name Utagawa Yoshimune II. He was also known by the names Ichimatsusai and Matsusai. Previously, in 1875, he had become a disciple of

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi ; 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese printmaker.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005)"Tsukoka Kōgyō"in ''Japan Encyclopedia,'' p. 1000. Yoshitoshi ha ...

and taken the name Tosetsu.

Work

In 1882, together with Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, he joined the staff of the Illustrated Free Newspaper, and later drew many illustrations for newspapers and magazines. In 1886 he created an illustration for the story " The Normanton incident" for Kaishin Shimbun. In 1887, he produced a

nishiki-e is a type of Japanese multi-coloured woodblock printing; the technique is used primarily in ukiyo-e. It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced many ''nishiki-e'' prints between ...

print of the

Satsuma Rebellion The Satsuma Rebellion, also known as the , was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government of the Empire of Japan, nine years into the Meiji era. Its name comes from the Satsuma Domain, which had been influential in ...

. From 1893, he operated a shop called Gahakudo for a time, which he later handed over to his fellow disciple Matsui Eikichi. He later worked on woodblock prints and crepe books intended for foreign markets published by

Hasegawa Takejirō was an innovative Japanese publisher specializing in books in European languages on Japanese subjects. He employed leading foreign residents as translators and noted Japanese artists as illustrators, and became a leading purveyor of export books ...

and his second son Nishinomiya Yosaku, illustrating night scenes and beautiful women. Arai Yoshimune was noted for his technique in depicting the effect of light at night or on water. His most popular works are part of a series calle
Hasegawa's Night Scenes

References

{{reflist

External links

images of works by Arai Yoshimune
1863 births 1941 deaths Shin hanga artists