Natori Shunsen

was a Japanese woodblock printer, considered by many to be the last master in the art of kabuki yakusha-e "actor pictures".

Biography He was born Natori Yoshinosuke, the fifth son of a silk merchant, in Yamanashi Prefecture. His family settled in Tokyo shortly after his birth, where he remained until his death in 1960. His schoolmates in these early years included the future nihonga painters Kawabata Ryūshi, Okamoto Ippei and Tōgyū Okumura.

From the age of eleven he studied with traditional Nihonga (Japanese-style) painter Kubota Beisen, and was given his artist's name "Shunsen". He also studied under Hirafuku Hyakusui, whose influence led him to join the Museikai, a group promoting greater realism within nihonga painting, and with whom, together with Ogawa Usen and others, he went on to found the Sangokai; in 1907 he won a prize for his hanging scroll Butai at the Nihon Bijutsuin exhibition. He subsequently studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts.He subsequently studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Natori Shunsen developed an interest in kabuki actor portraits while working as an illustrator for the newspaper Asahi Shimbun. During this time, he had the opportunity to meet the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō, who was the primary force behind the shin-hanga movement.

In 1925, Natori and Watanabe worked together on a series of 36 actor portraits. This series contains some of Natori's finest kabuki designs. Watanabe lavishly produced each print in a limited edition of 150 and sold them only by subscription. The series lasted through 1929, followed by a supplemental series of 15 actor prints produced through 1931.

In the late 1920s Natori also designed a small number of bijin-ga prints, for both Watanabe and the publisher Katō Jūji; these were generally received as flatter and less striking than his vibrant kabuki portraits, likely because they were not executed in the ōkubi-e format.

He continued to work as an artist in the kabuki theater, but did not design any other actor prints until the early 1950s. From 1951 to 1954, he again collaborated with Watanabe on another series of 30 actor prints. Like the earlier series, these designs were beautifully printed and are very expressive, especially the ōkubi-e portrait.

His works are held in several museums worldwide, including the British Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of New Zealand, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Harvard Art Museums, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Brooklyn Museum.

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