Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Yasuji Inoue

Yasuji Inoue (1864-1889) was born in Tokyo,  the son of a dry-goods merchant in Asakusa.Inoue became a student of Kobayashi Kiyochika, master of traditional Ukiyo-e painting and printmaking.Drawing heavily on Kiyochika’s style and experimentation with Western art elements, Inoue’s own experiment with light and shadows reflected the influence of French Impression, a departure from traditional ukiyo-e.He produced large-sized Kōsen-ga pictures that faithfully followed the painting style of Kiyochika.In 1884 Inoue changed his style and turned to conventional nishiki-e (a type of Japanese multi-colored woodblock printing) triptychs depicting the sights and events of the day in the traditional heroic style.Sadly, he died prematurely in 1889 at the age of twenty-five.At the time of his death he showed great promise in the woodblock print field and would have likely continued as a major artist in Japanese woodblock prints.One can only imagine the heights he would have reached if life had been kinder.More of Yasuji Inoue’s artwork can be found at https://ukiyo-e.org/artist/inoue-yasuji  and https://moderntokyotimes.com/japan-art-and-inoue-yasuji-art-of-tokyo/.