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Kiyoshi Awazu
Ukiyo-e Artist of the Edo Period Meets Designer of the Showa Period
A collection of patterns designed by Hokusai
transformed into colorful woodcut prints by Kiyoshi Awazu
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), the genius ukiyo-e artist of the Edo Period, was also a brilliant designer. After his death, patterns for kimono drawn by Hokusai were compiled into a book entitled "Hokusai Moyo Gafu (Hokusai Design Sketchbook)." It was published in the Meiji Period and loved by people for many years.
In 1986, woodblocks used to print "Hokusai Moyo Gafu" were discovered in storage at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. When the old woodblocks were returned to Japan, new prints were made from the woodblocks by artisans at the Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints who have mastered traditional woodcut printing techniques, and the new prints were unveiled to the public.
In this way, "Hokusai Patterns" came into the limelight nearly 150 years after its first publication. Inspired by Hokusai's masterly designs, the designer Kiyoshi Awazu came together with artisans at the Adachi Institute to create new "ukiyo-e." Mr. Awazu recomposed Hokusai's black-and-white patterns and created a series of brightly colored woodcut prints.
The two ingenious designers Katsushika Hokusai and Kiyoshi Awazu have transcended the centuries to come together and bring you the series of nine prints, "Hokusai Patterns/ Awazu Colors."
Kiyoshi Awazu "Hokusai Patterns/ Awazu Colors"
This series of nine woodcut prints was unveiled in the year following the discovery of woodblocks used to print a book of patterns designed by Hokusai entitled "Hokusai Moyo Gafu - Shingata Komon-cho (Hokusai Design Sketchbook - Album of New Format of Fine Patterns)" at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. With deep respect and understanding for Hokusai's designs, Kiyoshi Awazu boldly combined vivid colors, arranged the motifs in a playful way and took advantage of the characteristics of woodcut prints to create the series, which is a superb representation of his own unique world view.
The nine-piece collection has been included in the permanent collection at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture. The museum was early to recognize Kiyoshi Awazu's contribution to the history of design in Japan and organized large-scale retrospective exhibitions in the artist's honor, introducing a wide range of his works.
<h3>Kiyoshi Awazu（1929-2009）</h3>
Born 1929 in Tokyo, died 2009 in Kawasaki. Self-taught in painting and design. In 1955, Awazu received the Japan Advertising Artists Club Award for his poster Give Our Sea Back. He was a leader in post-war graphic design in Japan and involved in the development as creative expression of reproduction and mass production of images using printing technology. In 1960, he participated in the architectural movement "Metabolism", and in 1977, exhibited his work Graphism, Three Part Work at the Bienal de São Paulo. From the 1980s onward, he conducted a study of hieroglyphics and the written language of Native Americans. He continued to question not only images and the act of communication, but also human existence itself within the entirety of all living things. The foresight and totality of his creative activity still has a major impact today.
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