ONO Tadashige

Born: 1909, in Tokyo, Japan

Medium: Woodblock

Ono Tadashige stands as a prominent figure in Japanese postwar printmaking. His artistic style reflects a profound influence from the social-critical print movement of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany, Russia, China, and Japan, known as the “proletarian and farmers art movement.”

Renowned artist Ono Tadashige was born on January 19, 1909, in Tokyo, Japan. He studied art at the Hongo Art Institute from 1924 to 1927 and graduated in 1941 from the department of Japanese and Chinese languages at Hosei University Higher Normal School. From an early age, he actively participated in the sosaku hanga and proletarian art movements.

Following World War II, Tadashige’s international career thrived. His prints gained acclaim at prominent International Print Biennials, such as the 1957 event in Tokyo and the 1961 exhibition in Moscow. He also served as a visiting professor at leading Japanese institutions, including Tokyo University of Fine Arts, Aichi University of Fine Arts, Hiroshima University, and Utsunomiya University.

Tadashige authored several books about modern Japanese hanga and one focused on Chinese prints. He passed away on October 17, 1990