Japan: 'Snow Peony', Yamamoto Shoun (1870-1965), 1906

Yamamoto Shoun (December 30, 1870 - May 10, 1965), who was also known as Matsutani Shoun, was a Japanese print designer, painter, and illustrator. He was born in Kochi into a family of retainers of the Shogun and was given the name Mosaburo. As a teenager, he studied Kano school painting with Yanagimoto Doso and Kawada Shoryu. At about age 17, he moved to Tokyo, where he studied Nanga painting with Taki Katei. At 20 years of age, he was employed as an illustrator for Fugoku Gaho, a pictorial magazine dealing with the sights in and around Tokyo. In his latter career, Shoun primarily produced paintings. He died in 1965, at the age of 96. In addition to his magazine illustrations, Shoun is best known for his woodblock prints of 'bijin' or 'beautiful women', especially 'imasugata' a kind of precursor to the 'moderngirls / moga' movement of the 1920s and 1930s. Shoun is considered a bridge between the ukiyo-e and shin hanga schools. His career spans the Meiji (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-1926) and Showa (1926-1989) periods.