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Mizuno Toshikata 水野年方 (1866-1908)

Toshikata was born as Mizuno Kumejirō in 1866 in Tokyo to a plasterer’s family. When he was 13 years old his father, Nonaka Kichigoro, sent him to study with artist Yoshitoshi Tsukioka (1839-1892), who was to designate Toshikata as his successor. Yoshitoshi gave him the character toshi (年 or its variant 秊) from his own name as the first character of his art name Toshikata. He also apprenticed for a time with the ceramic painter Yamada Ryuto and studied traditional Japanese painting (nanga) with Shibata Hoshu and Watanabe Shōtei (aka Watanabe Seitei, 1851-1918). In 1887, on Yoshitoshi’s recommendation, Toshikata succeeded Yoshitoshi as the illustrator at the newspaper Yamato shimbun, where he worked until 1894. During the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), which brought about a brief resurgence of woodblock printmaking, he created a large body of work depicting battle scenes. He was also active as a painter of genre and historical subjects, receiving many awards. Toshikata designed illustrations for novels (kuchi-e), literary journals such as Bungei kurabu, Miyako no hana (Flower of the capital) and Shin shosetsu (New novel), and the design of fashion plates for department stores, such as the series Mitsukoshi: Brocades of the Capital (Mitsukoshi miyako no nishiki, 1905-6). Toshikata published a number of series of bijin prints and genre scenes, featuring women and children, including print sets such as Thirty-six Types of Beauty (Sanjurokkasen), 1891, published by Kokkedio, and Ancient Beauties (Kodai bijin). Toshikata remained a well-known painter, printmaker and illustrator and is credited with raising the status of painters from the ukiyo-e lineage. He died in April 1908 at age forty-two, reportedly from overwork. Other information: Artelino website http://www.artelino.com/forum/artists.asp?act=&art=132&alp=g&cay=1&cp=1&sea=&tie=Ginko%20Adachi%20active%201874-1897;, opens in a new window Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992; The Sino-Japanese War, Nathan Chaikin, self-published, 1983, pg. 36; Imperial Japan: The Art of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), Frederick Baekeland, Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1980, p. 136; The World of the Meiji Print: Impressions of a New Civilization, Julia Meech-Pekarik, Weatherhill, 1986, p. 220-221; The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing Company, 2005, p. 251, 253; International Fine Print Dealers Association websitehttp://www.printdealers.com/content/node/2225;, opens in a new window Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints: Reflections of Meiji Culture, Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, University of Hawaii Press, 2000, p. 209-210.