Kamisaka Sekka

Japanese, 1866–1942

Birth placeKyoto, Japan

BiographyRobyn Buntin:

Kamisaka Sekka was born in 1866 in Kyoto, the eldest of six sons. At the age of sixteen Sekka began his artistic studies with the most prominent teachers in Kyoto, but it was only after a trip to Europe in 1901, and exposure to the European tradition of industrial design, that his own sense of design and its importance to everyday life blossomed.

While Sekka studied industrial design, he also explored the decorative arts tradition. He became the final master of an historic Japanese artistic tradition known as Rimpa, founded in the early seventeenth century. Rimpa artists are renowned for working in many media and formats, and Sekka embraced this tradition as well. His works include painted screens and hanging scrolls, woodblock-printed books, lacquers, textiles, and ceramics. Sekka alone created the paintings on screens and hanging scrolls. When he worked in other media, he collaborated with artisans who made objects based on his designs. He believed strongly in giving credit to those who executed the woodblock, lacquer, textile, or ceramics he designed, and Sekka often included the artisan’s name as co-creator. Through this collaborative work in many media, and as a proponent of the development of modern crafts, he is known as the father of modern design in Japan.

He worked at the prestigious Kyoto City Municipal Museum and the Kyoto Municipal School of Fine Arts and Crafts. He exhibited at, and was judge for, the Kyoto Art Association, the San Francisco Great Exhibition, and the Domestic Industrial Design exhibitions. He received numerous Imperial commissions and honors, and was decorated several times by the Japanese and French governments for this work. He founded numerous art study groups and organizations and served as editor for a number of art publications. Sekka finally retired to his country home in Sagano on the outskirts of Kyoto in 1938, where he passed away on January 4, 1942 at the age of 77.

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