Ono, Tadashige, 1909-1990

Born in Tokyo. Graduated in 1941 from department of Japanese and Chinese languages of Hosei University Higher Normal School. Studied at Hongo Painting Institute 1924-1927. Active in proletarian art movement in 1929; founding member of Shin Hanga Shudan in 1932 and Zokei Hanga Kyokai in 1937. Member of Nihon Bijutsukai. Made hanga about 1929-1971. Exhibited with Nihon Hanga Kyokai from 1936. Member of Nihon Hanga Kyokai but withdrew when organization did not honor his request that it accept all members of Zokei Hanga Kyokai as members. Founding member of Japan Print Movement Society (Nihon Hanga Undo Kyokai) in 1949. Represented in Tokyo International Print Biennale in 1957 and modern Japanese print exhibition in the USSR in 1961. Published and contributed to Shin hanga; contributed to HANGA. Professor at Tokyo University of Fine Arts, Aichi University of Fine Arts, Hiroshima University, and Utsunomiya University. Contributed significantly to the literature on hanga through a book on Chinese prints and several publications on modern prints in Japan including Modern Japanese Prints (Kindai Nihon no hanga), 1971. Ono’s early prints were roughly carved to express the feeling that hanga were for the masses. His later prints retain the vigor of rough cutting but are enriched by sonorous color achieved by printing light opaque colors over dark.** Taken in whole, or in part, with permission from: Merritt, Helen and Nanako Yamada. Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu. 1992.