This original Japanese woodblock print measures 14 1/4 by 19 inches in original frame with unopened sealed back with square seal on front. Additional information on reverse in pencil (copied from front when framed?): Shiro Kasamatsu, number 36 of 40 (printing).

Shiro Kasamatsu 1898-1991

Born in the Asakusa section of Tokyo to a middle class family, Shiro Kasamatsu started his art studies at a young age. In 1911 he became a student of Kaburagi Kiyokata. Shiro studied Japanese style painting (Nihonga) but unlike his teacher, he concentrated on landscapes. Kiyokata chose his artist's name "Shiro", which used the character shi from one of Kiyokata's own pseudonyms and was conveniently an alternate spelling of Kasamatsu's given name.

Shiro's paintings were shown at several prestigious exhibitions including the government sponsored Bunten, where they caught the eye of Watanabe Shozaburo, a Tokyo publisher. In 1919, Watanabe approached Shiro about designing woodblock prints. He designed several landscape prints over the next few years, but the blocks for these were lost in the 1923 Kanto earthquake and consequently they are quite rare.

Shiro resumed his work with Watanabe in the 1930's. His designs were mainly of landscapes, but included bijin-ga, interiors, and Noh masks.

Shiro was intrigued by the independence of Sosaku Hanga printmakers who carved and printed their own designs. After World War II, He worked for a short time with Unsodo, a publisher in Kyoto, designing landscape and animal prints.

By the late 1950's, Shiro began carving and printing his own designs in limited, numbered editions. He signed these prints himself in English. Some of his Watanabe-published prints also bear English signatures; however, these signatures were applied by Watanabe's employees, not by the artist himself.

Although Shiro's self-made prints lack the refined carving of his shin hanga designs, they have a simplicity and expressiveness that is very appealing. Shiro continued to create prints for several decades, but never promoted them through exhibitions or gallery affiliations. As a result, his self-carved prints were more a labor of love than a commercial success.