Ito Shinsui

Shinsui Ito was born in Tokyo as Hajime Ito. He began his artistic training at the age of 12 in the drawing department of the Tokyo Printing Company before he started working in the studio of the painter Kiyokata Kaburagi. In 1916, Shinsui completed his first woodblock print, followed by the series Eight Views of Lake Biwa. Between 1922 and 1923, Shinsui designed his first series of beauties (Twelve Figures of New Beauties), followed by two parts of the Series of Modern Beauties (1929-1931 and 1931-1936). Although Shinsui Ito is best known for his bijin-ga, he continued to work as a painter. Shinsui Ito was appointed a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1958 and received the Order of the Rising Sun in 1970, before passing away in 1972.