Ito Shinsui (1898 - 1972)

Japanese-style painter and woodblock print artist flourished in the Taisho and Showa eras.
Uemura Shoen, Kaburaki Kiyokata and Ito Shinsui are the big three of Japanese Bijin-ga (Japanese beauty) painters.

Shinsui was born in Fukagawa of Tokyo city on February 4 of the 31st year of the Meiji era.
His real given name was Hajime.
He dropped out of an elementary school at the third grade and started working for a sign maker from 1907.
In 1908, he entered the Tokyo Prints as a typographer, and he also started studying painting under Nakayama Shuko.
In 1911, at the age of 14, he became a disciple of Kaburaki Kiyokata.
Kiyokata gave him a pseudonym "Shinsui".
In 1914, Shinsui was accepted for the first Revived Inten Exhibition.
He left the Tokyo Prints.
In the next year (1915), he was accepted for the 9th Bunten Exhibition.
he married with Yoshiko in 1919.
In 1943, he received a call-up paper as a war painter.
He traced about 4000 sketches at the Southern islands.
After World War 2, he moved to Kamakura.
In 1950, he established the Nichi-Getsu Sha together with Shiratori Eisetsu, Kodama Kibo and others.
In 1958, he was recommended for a membership of the Nihon Geijutsu-In.
Shinsui deceased on May 8 of the 47th year of the Showa era at the age of 74.