Harmony of Showa, 2017
6/200, Portrait of Artist's Children, Lightly Embossed
Numbered, Titled and Signed in Pencil by Artist Bottom Margin
Measures about 13 1/4 by 17 5/8 inches
RYO3 $236
Excellent Condition
Ryusei, or Yoshimi, Okamoto was born in Muroran, a seaside town in Japan's wild north in 1949. As a teenager, he worked in a local fishery, later studying marine biology at Nihon University. He became interested in woodblock prints early on. After graduation, he turned to print making and was fortunate to study with the great Shin Hanga print maker Toshi Yoshida for 10 years starting in 1974. When Yoshida was unable to travel in 1980, Ryusei replace him as an art teacher at Mendocino Art Center in California. Yoshida considered Ryusei one of the best Japanese woodblock print makers of his generation, embracing the traditional Japanese methods.
He has exhibited and won awards worldwide including in Denmark, Greece, Italy, Turkey and Japan. He carves and prints the wooden blocks himself, using traditional pigments as well as acrylics and oils on Japanese Washi papers. Today he lives and works in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, where the walls of his studio are hung with his works.
