Kondo Koichiro (1884-1962)
近藤浩一郎

Kondo Koichiro born in rural Yamaniahi Precfecture, studied at the Tokyo Fine Arts School and started his career as a Western-style painter. Marriage (to a woman from Kyoto) in 1914 may have prompted his search for a regular income, for in the following year Koichiro took a postion as a cartoonist an illustrator at the Yomiuri newspaper. His daily work with ink and brush gradually fostered a desire to explore the possibilities of ink painting. In 1919 Koichiro started entering his distinctive landscape paintings to the exhibitions of the Japan Art Institute (Inten) until 1935. - Kondo Koichiro can be considered one of the more excentric nihonga painters (Berry, Modern Masters of Kyoto, p.258).

In September 2006 the Nerima Art Museum in Tokyo celebrated the 120th anniversary of Kondo Koichiro's birth with a comprehensive exhibtion of 120 works, including oil paintings, cartoons. (Exhibition catalogue written by Noji Koichiro).

References:

Exhibition catalogue, Tokyo 2006: Nerima Art Museum, Hikari no suibokuga Kondo Koichiro no zenbou), (September 10th-October 15th)
Morioka, Michiyo and Paul Berry: Modern Masters of Kyoto. The Transformation of Japanese Painting Traditions (Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection), 1999 Seattle Art Museum, pp.258-261.
Exhibition catalogue, Kyoto 1979. Three unique suiboku-ga artists of modern Japan: Nishi Seiun, Kondo Koichiro, Yamashita Maki, Kyoto National Museum (July 27th-August 28th).
Exhibition catalogue, Tokyo 1962: Posthumous Exhibition of four Artists: Kondo Koichiro, Noda Hideo, Sakata Kazuo, Fujikawa Yuzo: Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art (November 17th-December 9th)