河野薫 Kaoru Kawano (1916-1965)

Children and Birds of the North: The Woodblock Prints of Kaoru Kawano

Kaoru Kawano (河野薫 (1916-1965)) was born in Otaru, the far northern prefecture of Hokkaido, and showed early promise under the guidance of Narita Gyokusen, a teacher who also instructed the young Kiyoshi Saito. As a teenager he exhibited paintings at the Dōten (道展), the annual exhibition of the Hokkaido Art Association, as well as at national student competitions. After graduating from Otaru Middle School in 1934 he moved to Tokyo to study at the Kawabata Art School and later joined the publisher Nobarasha (野ばら社). Encounters with ikebana master Adachi Chōka in the late 1930s soon influenced early figure studies such as his Dancing Figure (踊り) series.

Kawano began submitting prints to the Japan Print Association (日本版画協会) in the early 1940s, but his career was interrupted by wartime service and subsequent prisoner internment in Siberia. Upon returning to Japan in 1949 he resumed exhibiting and taught art in Otaru before relocating to Tokyo in 1954 to focus fully on printmaking. Over the next decade he exhibited regularly with both the Japan Print Association and Kokugakai (国画会), receiving the Kokuga Prize in 1955. Through collaborations with Yōseidō Gallery his works were shown widely in postwar international print exhibitions, reaching museums and audiences in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia, alongside solo exhibitions in Seattle, Chicago, and Tokyo.

Kawano developed a consistent range of subjects that became closely associated with his name: children, owls and other birds, and simple botanical, cultural, or symbolic motifs. Many designs emphasise the natural grain of the woodblock, which becomes part of the printed pattern and texture. He produced both limited and open editions, with impressions ranging from pencil-signed works to prints bearing his red seal. Kawano died in 1965 at the early age of forty-nine; his prints remain accessible, charming and warm in character, and his works are continuing to find deserved increasing attention among collectors in recent years.