Un-Ichi Hiratsuka

Unichi Hiratsuka is one of the founding fathers of the Creative Prints movement (Sosaku Hanga) and one of the big names of twentieth century Japanese art. Hiratsuka is best known for prints in black and white. He died at the age of 102 years.

Hiratsuka Unichi's early prints were in color. Subjects were mainly landscapes. Immediately after the great Kanto earthquake in 1923, which had destroyed Tokyo, Hiratsuka began a color series showing the devastations and the reconstruction works - Tokyo shinsai ato fukei.

In contrast to the radical artist Koshiro Onchi, who refused traditional Japanese art completely, Hiratsuka Unichi studied and appreciated early Ukiyo-e and such classical artists like Hiroshige and Hokusai.