Shinkai Kanzan and Seifū Yohei V were first cousins.
Description
Shinkai Kunitarō新開邦太郎, who took the artist style name Kanzan 寛山, had a cute design sense and keen interest in birds, insects, and animals as subject matter. His rabbit is entirely cream-colored but for touches of deep pink for the eyes. It is meant for display at New Year’s in the Year of the Rabbit. The animal looks up while holding a treasured jewel, which is banded to indicate that it is tricolored.
Seifu Yohei III was the artist’s grandfather, and Yohei IV was his uncle and the older brother of his father, who specialized in throwing ceramics on the wheel.1 Shinkai studied ceramics with Yohei IV and attended the Kyoto City School of Fine and Decorative Arts, where he studied design and painting on the advice of his father, for in the world of the ceramics studio, those who applied designs and paintings had a more elevated status than those who worked the wheel. In 1930, the year of his graduation, he first exhibited in the 11th Imperial Exhibition. From 1932, he went on to receive additional ceramics training from Kiyomizu Rokubei VI (1901–1980) after joining the ceramics society of Rokubei VI’s father, Kiyomizu Rokubei V (1875–1959). After World War II, he reinvented himself and exhibited extensively in national-level exhibitions, garnering numerous prizes. He later served as a jurist or committee member for many of the same shows. In 1989, he was awarded the Kyoto Prefecture Culture Award for Lifetime Achievement and remained active on the board of the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, or Nitten, as late as 1992.
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