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Kuroki Sadao (1908-1984)


Biographical Data


Biography

Kuroki Sadao 黒木貞雄 (1908-1984)
Source: Guide to Modern Japanese WoodblockPrints: 1900-1975, Merritt, Helen and Nanako Yamada, University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu, 1992 p. 81; Japanese Wood-block Prints, Shizuya Fujikake, Japan Travel Bureau, 1938 revised 1949, p. 168; Modern JapaneseWoodblock Prints - The Early Years, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1998, p. 206.
Also known as Kurogi Sadao, the artist was born on December 8, 1908 in Nobeoka, Miyazaki prefecture in Southern Kyūshū.  He graduated from Miyazaki Normal School and studied Western-style painting at Kawabata Painting institute in Kyoto.  An ardent student, he drew inspiration from Hiratsuka Un'ichi (1895-1997) and took Hiratsuka's short course in hanga when Hiratsuka visited the city of Oita in 1934.  He also studied with Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955).  He was a member of the Japanese Print Association (Nihon Hanga Kyōkai) and the National Picture Association (Kokugakai) and exhibited with both of these groups.  He exhibited once with the New Print Group (Shin Hanga Shūdan.)  He contributed the print Flowering Grass to the Kitsutsuki hangashū [two groups of prints that were issued by Hiratsuka's Kitsutsuki (Woodpecker) group1 in 1943] and the print Iwato Kagura Play to the series Picture Notes on Native Customs of Japan (Nihon minzoku zufu), in 1946.  He was awarded the Miyazaki prefecture culture prize in 1951.

Merritt states his "landscape prints suggest heavy oil paint in vigorously repeated strokes" and Shizuya comments "his prints are full of colors, especially local color."

He sometimes uses the signature SA or the first kanji of his given name on early prints.

Kuroki passed away on February 23, 1984.  His sons Kuroki Ikutomo 黒木 郁朝黒 (b. 1945) and Kuroki Yoshinori 木良典 are both artists.

1 A group of artists associated with Hiratsuka who met regularly at Hiratsuka's house to give each other social support


Other Examples of the Artist's Prints

 
Nobeoka fukei
(Landscape at Nobeoka), 1942
15.7 x 13 cm
 Saru Gallery
http://www.sarugallery.com/default.php?L=4&NR=1104

  Stone Image of Buddha,
c.1957
36.0 x 50.5 cm
Kikai Sosaku-hanga
http://www.sosakuprints.com/E/k-rm-2.shtml



Sacred Dance before the Rock Door, c. 1960
40.8 x 31.7 cm
Kikai Sosaku-hanga
http://www.sosakuprints.com/E/k-rm-2.shtml


Seki no o (Lower mountain slope)
f
rom the series Himuka fubutsu hanga shu, self-printed in 1961
25 x 18.4 cm
Saru Gallery
http://www.sosakuhanga.net/index.php?page=print&NR=1555 

 

 Tachibana Park (Miyazaki), c. 1964
21.2 x 29.4 cm
Kikai Sosaku-hanga
http://www.sosakuprints.com/E/k-rm-2.shtml