Shinoda Tōkō
Japanese, 1913–2021
- Names
Shinoda Toko
篠田桃紅
Shinoda Tōkō
- Active
- Occupation or Type
printmaker
calligrapher
- Bio
Perhaps the most famous woman print artist in Japan, Shinoda works in both printmaking and calligraphy. She utilizes lithography for its proximity to painting, allowing her to brush flowing strokes of ink onto the stone. Her free, fluid style is based in a tradition of loose "grass script" calligraphy and evokes the motion of wind on water.
Shinoda Tōkō, originally trained as a calligrapher and painter, took up lithography in the early 1960s at the suggestion of the American printmaker, Arthur Flory. Lithography is a planographic process; that is, the stone (or, in the case of Shinoda's prints, usually a zinc plate), is a flat surface. The plate is coated with a gum arabic and acid solution to insure that it will hold the image, which is created with a grease-based ink. Once the plate has been chemically treated to accept ink only in the proper places, the artist's original gestures can be replicated with astonishing accuracy. The production of a uniform edition of lithographs requires the utmost precision in each step of printing. Shinoda has entrusted her printing to Kimura Kihachi for most of her career.
- Gender
Female
- Related People
Associate of: Kimura Kihachi (Japanese, 1934-2014)