was a Japanese

woodblock print Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. Each page or image is creat ...

artist, painter, sculptor and stage designer.

Early Life

He was born in

Kojima Kojima, Ko-jima, may refer to: People * Kojima (surname) Places * Kojima District, Okayama, Japan * Kojima Village, Matsumae, Hokkaido, Japan * Kojima Domain, Suruga Province, Honshu, Japan; an Edo-period domain Islands * Kōjima, an island ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

, 1931. His father was a ceramic artist and head of the Kyoto Industrial Craft Company. Kobashi learned printmaking from the '' sōsaku hanga'' (creative prints) master Unichi Hiratsuka. In 1955, Kobashi graduated from the Kyoto College of Crafts and Textiles, and in 1959, he moved to New York City.

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich "Rocky" Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. He was also the 49th governor of New York, serving from 1959 to 197 ...

(governor of New York and later vice-president) was Kobashi's patron, and acquired one of the artist's sculptures for the

New York State Executive Mansion The New York State Executive Mansion is the official residence of the governor of New York. Located at 138 Eagle Street in Albany, New York, it has housed governors and their families since 1875. History The building was constructed in 1856 as ...

in Albany.Eichman, 2010, p. 6

Career

Kobashi is best known for his '' sōsaku hanga'' woodblock prints and his sculptures intended to be rearranged, which he called "self-constructions". The

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

, the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(New York City), the

Neuberger Museum of Art The Neuberger Museum of Art (the NEU) is located at the centre of the Purchase College campus in Purchase, New York. With a collection of nearly 7,000 works of modern, contemporary and African art, it is one of the nation's largest academic mus ...

(Purchase, New York), the

Weisman Art Museum Weisman Art Museum is an art museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1934 as University Gallery, the museum was originally housed in an upper floor of the university's Northrop Auditorium. In 1993, the museum ...

(University of Minnesota, Minneapolis), an
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
are among the public collections holding work by Kobashi.

Footnotes

References

* Baron, Virginia Olsen, ''The Seasons of Time; Tanka Poetry of Ancient Japan, Illustrated by Yasuhide Kobashi'', New York, Dial Press, 1968. * Eichman, Shawn and Sawako Takemura Chang, Self-construction: The Art of Kobashi Yasuhide, ''Honolulu Academy of Arts'', Vol. 82, No. 6, Nov./Dec., 2010, pp. 6–7. * Garfias, Robert and Lincoln Kirstein, ''Gagaku: The Music and Dances of the Japanese Imperial Household with calligraphy by Yasuhide Kobashi'', New York, Theatre Arts Books, 1959. * Kirstein, Lincoln, ''Kobashi. Recent Sculpture by Yasuhide Kobashi'', New York, Allan Stone, 1961. * Pratt Graphic Art Center, ''Eleven Prints by Eleven Printmakers'', New York,

Pratt Graphic Art Center The Pratt Graphic Art Center also called the Pratt Graphics Center was a print workshop and gallery in New York. The Center grew out of Margaret Lowengrund's Contemporaries Graphic Art Centre. In 1956 Fritz Eichenberg became the Center's director, ...

, 1961. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kobashi, Yasuhide Modern printmakers Sosaku hanga artists American modern sculptors 20th-century Japanese sculptors American modern painters 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 20th-century Japanese painters American production designers 1931 births 2003 deaths 20th-century American sculptors American male sculptors 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American male artists 21st-century Japanese painters