Koshiro Onchi

Onchi Kōshirō (1891 - 1955) was a Japanese print-maker born in Tokyo. He was the father of the sōsaku-hanga - Creative Prints - movement in twentieth century Japan, and a photographer.

Onchi came from an aristocratic family that had close connections with the imperial family. Onchi was the son of Onchi Tetsuo, an official of the Imperial Court in charge of ceremonies and of the education of two young princes, which education the young Koshiro partly shared.

In 1910 he entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts but soon dropped out, and by 1911 had secured his first book-designing commission. He designed over 1000 books in his career. From 1928 he was a leading organiser of the series 'One Hundred New Views of Tokyo' where he joined with seven other sōsaku hanga artists - Un'ichi Hiratsuka, Sakuichi Fukazawa, Sumio Kawakami, Sempan Maekawa, Shizuo Fujimori, Takashi Henmi, and Suwa Kanenori. Onchi Kōshirō contributed 13 prints, all of which are included here.

From 1945 Onchi emerged unequivocally as the leader of the sosuku hanga - Creative Prints - movement and contributed to two of the group portfolios which re-established it ('Tokyo kaiko zue', 1945, and 'Nihon jozoku sen', 1946).