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Ide Gakusui (1899-1978)


Biographical Data

Biography

Ide Gakusui 井出岳水 (1899-19781)
Sources: Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 38; Catalogue of Wood-Cut Color Prints by Contemporary Japanese Artists, S. Watanabe Color Print Co.,  1962, p. 78; wikipedia https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%95%E5%87%BA%E5%B2%B3%E6%B0%B4

A traditional painter in the Japanese style (nihonga) who specialized in kacho-ga (bird and flower drawings), Ide designed prints for the Watanabe Publishing Company beginning in the spring of 1949 and continued his association with Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962) until the mid-1950s.  Watanabe's 1963 catalog lists fifteen prints Ide designed, all of them of the bird and flower genre.   (Three of his best known designs for Watanabe are pictured below.) After his collaboration with Watanabe, Gakusui continued to design prints through the late 1950s. It is unclear who published his prints after his association with Watanabe as they do not bear a publisher's mark.

Born in Funatsumura, Minami-Tsurun gun, Yamanashi Prefecture, his real name was Ide Taizō 井出泰三. After graduating from Nippon University College of Art, he studied nihonga painting with Yamanouchi Tamon (1878-1932) and, after Tamo's death, with Arai Kanpō (1878-1945)2, a nihonga painter and print designer.

In 1929 he moved to China where he was to stay until after the end of WWII in 1946.  While in China he traveled widely.  Settling in Shanghai, he opened a Japanese-style painting school.  After his return to Japan he served as director of the Fine Arts Education Association (美術育英協会) and at least one of his paintings was acquired by the Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō).


A Few Examples of Artist's Nihonga Paintings

 
松ト双鶴
Pair of Cranes in Pine Tree
undated
 
長寿梅
Old Plum Tree
undated
 
四季花
Flowers of the Fours Seasons
undated


A Few of the Artist's Prints Designed for Watanabe Publishing Company

Note: These three prints have been reprinted by Watanabe and are available in reprint from the publisher S. Watanabe Color Print Publishing in Tokyo.

 
雪中白鷺
Two Herons in Snow
c. 1950
 
雨中白鷺
Heron in Rain
c. 1950
 
鶴(A)
Two Cranes (A)
c. 1950

Signatures and Seals of the Artist

Signatures and Seals Appearing on Scrolls
 
岳水 (Gakusui) with 岳水(Gakusui) seal

 岳水 (Gakusui)
with 井出泰三 (Ide Taizo) seal
 
岳水 (Gakusui) with 岳水(Gakusui) seal
 
岳水 (Gakusui) with 岳水(Gakusui) seal

Signatures and Seals Appearing on Prints
 
岳水 (Gakusui) with 岳水(Gakusui) seal


岳水(Gakusui) seal
 岳水 (Gakusui)
with 井出泰三
(Ide Taizo) seal
 
岳水 (Gakusui) with 井出三
(Ide Taizo) seal
 岳水 (Gakusui) with 井出 (Ide) seal
 

岳水 (Gakusui) seal



1Merritt and others give the artist's date of date as 1982, but the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art, Japan gives his death date as 1978.
2 Merritt and other sources state that he studied with the nihonga artist Araki Kanpō 荒木寛畝 (1831-1915), rather than Arai Kanpō 荒井寛方 (1878-1945) a nihonga and print artist.