About

Onchi Koshiro(1891-1955) is widely known as a promoter of the modernization of woodcuts and a pioneer of abstract expression in Japan.

  Onchi Koshiro looked up to Takehisa Yumeji as his model in his teens and in 1914, together with Tanaka Kyokichi and Fujimori Shizuo, who were students at Tokyo Fine Arts School, he founded Tsukuhae, a coterie magazine of woodcuts and poems. Lyric: “The Clear Hours” (1915) and other works published in this magazine are known as harbingers of abstract expression in Japan. Once the Showa period began, amidst efforts to revive Tokyo after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 as a modern city, while, on the one hand, Onchi sympathized with the new trends in Europe and produced series of works inspired by constructive figures and contemporary music, on the other hand, he also produced profound portrait prints comparable with oil paintings. Aiming at the synthesis of image, language, and design, he was also involved in the production of numerous illustrated books, which are innovative even in our eyes today. After World War II, with Foreword appreciation and encouragement from American collectors who came to Japan while it was occupied by the GHQ, Onchi began to concentrate on abstract expressions. The final ten years of his life was an extremely fruitful period in his lifetime.

  This exhibition consists mainly of 250 Prints, including approximately 60 important works owned by major art museums abroad. Together with 11 oil paintings, 26 watercolors and drawings, 20 photographs, and 79 book designs, it demonstrates this artist’s cross-genre work. We hope you will enjoy the versatile world of Onchi Koshiro, who left behind a tremendous achievement towards the modernization of print expressions from the Taisho period to the postwar Showa period.

Hours & Admissions

Location

Art Museum Special Exhibition Gallery

Date

January 13, 2016 – February 28, 2016

Time

10:00-17:00 (Friday is 10:00-20:00)
*Last admission : 30 minutes before closing

Closed

Closed on Mondays

Admission

Day ticket (Group of 20 persons or more)
Adults: ¥1,000 (800)
College / University students: ¥500 (400)
* All prices include tax.
* High school age and under 18 are free of charge.
* Persons with disability and one person accompanying them are admitted free of charge.
* Including the admission fee for Visit Japan: Tourism Promotion in the 1920s and 1930s and MOMAT Collection.

Organizers

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama
The Tokyo Shimbun