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Biography

Kamei Tōbei 亀井藤兵衛  (1901-1977)
Sources: Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 52; Japanese Wood-block Prints, Shizuya Fujikake, Japan Travel Bureau, 1938 revised 1949, p. 114.

Kamei Tōbei was born in Wakayama Prefecture south of Osaka in the Kansai Region with the given name Eiichi.  He used the name Kamei Tōbei until 1953 when he changed it to Kamei Genbei (Kamei Gengei) 亀井 玄兵衛.  He was a graduate of the Kyoto Kaiga Semmon Gakko (Technical School of Painting) where he studied with Kawabata Ryūshi (1885-1966) and Yamada Kōun (1878-1956).  He became interested in prints while an undergraduate and exhibited his prints at Teiten and Kokugakai.  He was a founding member of Kyoto Sosaku Hanga Kyokai in 1929 and was a member of the group that published Taishu hanga (Popular Prints), a short-lived 1931 print magazine.  He contributed to various Uchida published series, such as Fifty Studies in Flowers and Twenty-Four Views in and out of Kyoto (see image below) which were collaborations with Kotozuka Eiichi (1906-1979) and Tokuriki Tomikichirō (1902-2000).  He created a number of small postcard-size prints showing famous scenes of Tokyo, titled Ten Lovely Sights in Tokyo, and of Kyoto titled Ten Lovely Sights in Kyoto.  He is one of the founders of the Kōrokusha publishing house with Kotozuka and Tokuriki.  From 1937 Kamei exhibited Japanese-style painting (nihonga) with Seiryusha which promoted Japanese-style painting and he became a full member of Seiryusha in 1950.