Kampō Arai (荒井 寛方, August 15, 1878 – April 16, 1945) was a Japanese Buddhist painter and reproduction artist. His given name was Kanjūrō (寛十郎).[1]

Biography

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He was born in Ujiie (modern-day Sakura) in Tochigi Prefecture to a family of printers who worked with mon and paper lanterns. In 1899, he started an apprenticeship under ukiyoe-style popular artist Toshikata Mizono. In 1902, he began work in reproduction of old paintings featured in Kokka magazine. In 1907, he was accepted into the first Nihon Bijutsu Tenrankai, in which he later became an active participant.

In 1914, he worked with Yokoyama Taikan and others on the revival of the Japan Fine Arts Academy. In 1916, he traveled to India, where he became acquainted with the poet Rabindranath Tagore. In 1917, he began a project on reproduction of the Ajanta cave paintings. He returned to Japan the following year. In 1939, he participated in a reproduction project on the murals in the Kondō of Hōryū-ji.

In 1945, he died of a stroke during a reproduction project.[2]

Selected works

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Further reading

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  • Shigemi, Inaga (2009). "The Interaction of Bengali and Japanese Artistic Milieus in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (1901-1945): Rabindranath Tagore, Arai Kampō , and Nandalal Bose". Japan Review. 21. International Research Center for Japanese Studies: 149–181.

References

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  1. ^ Yamada, Nanako (2016). 木版口絵総覧: A Survey of Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints (in Japanese). 文生書院; 増補改訂版. ISBN 978-4892536069.
  2. ^ "荒井寛方". 栃木県立美術館 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-11-05.