Shunichi Kadowaki
Born in Préfecture de Kagawa (Japan) in 1913.
Died in Préfecture de Kagawa (Japan) in 2006.
Japanese · Japanese woodblock printmaking, watercolour, oil and screen painting
Shunichi Kadowaki (1913–2006) was a Japanese painter and printmaker from Kagawa Prefecture. Self-taught from childhood, he began drawing at an early age and encountered Western art during overseas travel connected with his service in the Japanese navy. After 1945 he spent several years in Nagasaki Prefecture working from nature before returning to Kagawa.
There he developed an individual practice encompassing watercolour, oil painting, ink painting, folding screens and, above all, woodblock printmaking.
Kadowaki became especially associated with Japanese landscapes, festivals and regional traditions. A major body of work is devoted to the temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage, which he treated not as static monuments but as living places inhabited by pilgrims, families and visitors. His stylised drawing, vivid colour planes and decorative sense led to his being described at times as a modern ukiyo-e artist.
Festival scenes, urban views and local landscapes extend the same interest in everyday Japanese life.
His recognition extended beyond Japan. In 1994 a solo exhibition was held at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, accompanied by a 103-page catalogue now held by institutions including Kyoto University and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Twenty years after his death, Nakazu Banshoen / Marugame Museum of Art presented a retrospective from 1 January to 15 March 2026 with nearly forty works, including the twenty-three Kagawa temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage and a large Awa Odori folding screen.
The works by Shunichi Kadowaki presented by Swiss Art Gallery extend this artistic journey and take their place naturally within this corpus.
