Kitano Tsunetomi Prints

A native of Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture and trained as an engraver for newspaper printing, Kitano Tsunetomi moved to Osaka and studied with Ineno Toshitsune. After working as a successful newspaper illustrator, he pursued a career in painting. His regular participation in national exhibitions began when his work was accepted to the 1910 Bunten Exhibition. Many awards followed, and soon Tsunetomi gained national recognition for his bijinga, or “paintings of beautiful women,” which were often perceived as explicitly erotic and decadent. The sense of realism Tsunetomi achieved in his early work is thought to reflect his study of Western-style oil painting at the end of the Meiji period. In 1917, Tsunetomi became a member of the Japan Art Institute (Nihon Bijutsuin), and thereafter his painting began to manifest an increasingly refined conservatism. One of the earliest Nihonga artists from Osaka to attain national fame, Tsunetomi galvanized the Osaka painting circle and nurtured many prominent local artists, including Nakamura Teii and Shima Seien. – From the Metropolitan Museum of Art website