Shiro Kasamatsu

Shiro Kasamatsu (笠松 紫浪, Kasamatsu Shirō, 11 January 1898, Tokyo – 14 June 1991) was a Japanese engraver and print maker trained in the Shin-Hanga and Sōsaku-Hanga styles of woodblock printing.

Kasamatsu was born in Tokyo in 1898 and apprenticed at the age of 13 to Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878–1973), a traditional master of Bijin-ga, pictures of beautiful women.

Kasamatsu however took an interest in landscape and was given the pseudonym Shiro by his teacher, which he used as a signature mark in his prints.

Kasamatsu completed his first woodblock prints in 1919 for Shōzaburō Watanabe after the publisher saw his paintings on exhibit.

Almost all the woodblocks were destroyed in a fire in Watanabe's print shop following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

In front left side: Shiro Kasamatsu, right side Shōzaburō Watanabe . In the back from left: Moriyama, Kawase Hasui , collector Robert Muller and wife Inge, [ 1 ] Itō Shinsui and his wife (1941)