Biography Urushibara, Yoshijiro (1888 - 1953)

In 1910 Yoshijiro Urushibara arrived in England on the occasion of the Anglo-Japanese exhibition at White City, London. In 1912 he was hired by the British Museum to make facsimile copies of a famous fourth-century Chinese scroll painting by Gu Kaizhi (c. 344-406 AD). He remained in London almost without interruption until he was repatriated in 1942.
In his early years at the British Museum Urushibara worked as a free lance mounter and restorer of paintings and scrolls. Through his carving and print designs he exerted an important influence on the revival of colour woodblock printmaking in England in the 1920s-1930s. His collaboration in 1919 with the Belgian-born and British-trained graphic artist and muralist Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) was perhaps Urushibara's best-known project: he reproduced Brangwyn's watercolours as large woodblock prints in a portfolio titled "Bruges." The two artists collaborated a second time in 1924 by issuing a set of ten prints for the portfolio "Ten Woodcuts by Yoshijirō Urushibara after Designs by Frank Brangwyn."
During this period Urushibara also designed and printed his own woodblock prints, mainly scenes of landscapes, flowers, and horses In 2017 a catalogue raisonné of his work was published: Yoshijiro Urushibara - A Japanese printmaker in London, by Hilary Chapman and Libby Horner, Published by Hotei Publishing. Much recommended!



Items for sale from Urushibara, Yoshijiro