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Biographical Data

Biography

Iwami Reika 岩見禮花  いわみれいか  (1927-2020)

Sources: Modern Japanese Prints 1912-1989, Lawrence Smith, British Museum Press, 1994, p. 26; 44 Modern Japanese Print Artists, Gaston Petit, Kodansha International Ltd., 1973, p. 146.

scanned from the catalog of the exhibition of the 49th CWAJ Print Show - Japanese Contemporary Print, The College Women's Association of Japan, 2004

Iwami Reika, pioneer in the post-WWII male-dominated world of Japanese print-making, is the first Japanese woman print artist “to achieve the same status and worldwide recognition as male artists.”1 While born in Tokyo, her early years were spent on the Islandof Kyūshu.2  Returning to Tokyo, but unable to afford regular art classes, she attended Sunday art courses, including printmaking, at Tokyo’s Bunka Gakuin College, graduating in 1955.  Before coming to printmaking she tried oil painting and studied doll-making under the “National Treasure” Hori Ryūjo 堀柳女 (1897–1984).  While having an early interest in prints, it was not until after seeing the work of the sosaku hanga (creative print) artist Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955) in 1953-1954 that she took up the study of printmaking, studying with Onchi’s associates Sekinō Jun’ichiro (1914-1988) and Shinagawa Takumi (1908-2009).3 By the mid-1950s, Iwami had “discovered a natural affinity for the paper, wood, and watercolor, and felt that she had found her artistic niche in the execution of woodblock prints.”4

Circular Shadow No. 5 (Maru-ei No. 5), 1957 Sheet: 23.1 x 23.2 in.   scanned from Collecting Modern Japanese Prints, Then and Now, Mary and Norman Tolman

Round Shadow C (円影), 1957 Sheet: (not provided) Honolulu Museum of Art Gift of James A. Michener, 1991 (Inventory No. 24499)

In 1953 she began exhibiting prints with the Nihon Hanga Kyōkai (Japanese Print Association), becoming a member in 1955 and remaining a member until her death.   In 1957, with Yoshida Chizuko (1924-2017) and others, she co-founded the Joryū Hanga Kyōkai (Women’s Print Association), an association of nine professional womenprintmakers.⁵  She exhibited every year since 1957 with the College Women’s Association of Japan print show in Tokyo and, starting in the late 1950s, her work has been included in numerous print biennales.  However, it was not until 1962, when James Michener included her work in his seminal book The Modern Japanese Print - An Appreciation, which included, in its original limited edition form, a portfolio of ten original prints, that she gained world-wide notice.  (See below, for more background on Michener's The Modern Japanese Print.)

Iwami's earlier works, as can be seen by the two 1957 prints shown above, were geometrical abstractions, employing some color, but starting in about 1970 her work became less abstract, adopting a distinctive vocabulary representing the natural world, particularly of water.  Her pallet also moved to primarily black, white and shades of gray enhanced with application of gold and silver foils and the physically demanding technique of embossing.  All of these elements remain in her current work. 

Iwami's work of the past 40 years is illustrative of J. Thomas Rimer's comments on sosaku hanga that even in their abstraction, creative prints still maintained a sense of "muted realism” and“a sense of craft rooted in instinctive apprehension of the power, the wholeness, of nature itself.”⁶  Speaking directly of Iwami's work, Rimer praises it for its "sense of craft and elegance" going on to say: "She seldom relies on bright colors, allowing rather the textures and shapes to speak in a wholly natural fashion.  She sometimes uses actual objects from nature, such as driftwood⁷, pressing them to paper to create the subtle textures that make her works distinctive."⁸

Musical Note of Water, 1970 Sheet: 23/4 x 18 1/2 in. Artelino website

Water Music V, 1971  Sheet: 13 13/16 x 10 1/16 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (AC1995.141.8)

The consistency of Iwami's work since the early 1970s, in style and theme, are attested to by comments written twenty years apart by the artist and critic Francis Blakemore and Iwami's publisher and dealer for many years Norman Tolman.

Iwami is a rarity among woman woodblock artists in her avoidance of color.  Solid, pure blacks are blended with finely textured grays and some metallic gold.  Large full moons often dominate the prints, with rocket like golden thrusts piercing them in bold curves.  Wavelike patterns like communication symbols sometimes bisect the circles.  Sprinklings of powdered mica over the white areas give the impression of windblown sand.  In the absence of brilliant colors, form and texture are strongly evident. Technically as well as artistically, Iwami is a polished professional.  Driven by a powerful desire for expression, she undertakes each step of the printing process herself – from the cutting of the blocks to the inking and the rubbing of the paper.  Especially difficult is the embossing, which requires great physical strength. Iwami’s devotion to her work is apparent to all who see it.  The finished prints have a wholeness that cannot be matched by ordinary production techniques.10

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The Modern Japanese Print - An Appreciation by James Michener

James Michener was an avid Japanese print collector and scholar, collecting both the prints of the great ukiyo-e masters, such as Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai and Hiroshige, and modern “creative print” (sosaku hanga) artists, such as Onchi Koshiro, Shinagawa Takumi, Kitaoka Fumio and Yoshida Toshi.  (See A Very Brief Introduction to Ukiyo-e, Shin Hanga and Sōsaku Hanga.) In 1959, in an effort to publicize and promote the work of sosaku hanga artists, many of whom Michener knew personally, he proposed issuance of a limited edition portfolio, in book form, of original contemporary prints with commentary.  The book, titled The Modern Japanese Print – An Appreciation, was issued in 1962 and “met with wide critical and commercial acclaim.”  It was instrumental in promoting the careers of the ten artists whose work was included: Hiratsuka Un'ichi (1895-1997), Maekawa Senpan (1888-1960), Mori Yoshitoshi (1898-1982), Watanabe Sadao (1913-1996), Kinoshita Tomio (1923-c.2011), Shima Tamami (1937-1999), Azechi Umetarō (1902-1999), Iwami Reika (b. 1927), Yoshida Masaji (1917–1971) and Maki Haku (1924-2000) and in bringing to the world’s attention the artists and the work of the post-WWII sosaku hanga movement. Prints to be included in the folio were chosen by a panel of art experts

and the inclusion in the portfolio allowed many of the artists to approach making a living from their print work. Particularly notable, was the inclusion of a print from Iwami Reika, one of two women artists (the other being Shima Tamami), to be included in the folio.¹¹  

I was so sad to hear from her niece that IWAMI Reika died on March 18th, 2020. Diminutive in stature, she was capable of making powerful woodblocks which spoke of her love of nature. Reika-san lived most of her life by the seacoast at Hayama, and would frequently walk on the beach, collecting odd bits of driftwood and cast-off fishing nets that she inked and used in her work. James Michener discovered her work in the 1950s and included her in his seminal 1962 book The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation, commenting on her beautiful use of texture, the vivid yet controlled coloring, and the wholly satisfying composition of her oeuvre. When my parents opened their gallery in 1972, she was one of the first artists they represented. I was a young girl then and found it interesting that she had gotten into woodblock print making through Kokeshi doll carving. She also created intricately inlaid tea caddies in which to store green tea powder for traditional tea ceremony. Our artists are part of our extended family, especially because our actual relatives lived in the US during the time that my sister and I were growing up in Japan. I therefore found it quite normal to be told, during my junior year abroad in Paris, that Reika san would be coming with my family so that we could all celebrate Christmas together. She confessed upon arrival that that it was her first trip to Europe, and I planned an exhaustive itinerary, knowing that as an artist, she would of course want to visit the Louvre first. Paris in the winter can be cold and damp but we bundled up and sallied forth into the elements. I couldn’t wait to see her expression when she glimpsed the Mona Lisa, although I knew that, tiny as she was, the crowds might be overwhelming. Indeed, there were throngs in the gallery where the Mona Lisa is located and as I energetically pushed my way through the horde, I realized at one point that I had lost her. Frantically re-tracing my steps, I searched gallery after gallery but to no avail. After a few miserable hours I returned crestfallen to the apartment and announced to my family: “I lost Reika-san”. As we were discussing what we should do to locate her, and whether or not we should call the police or return all together to the Louvre and scour the adjacent streets for her, Reika-san returned, cheeks flushed, chattering away about her “wonderful stroll through the museum after she realized that we had been separated, and the walk home through the picturesque streets of Paris”. That incident taught me early on that being petite does not mean one is helpless and made me appreciate the strength emanating from her woodblocks all the more.