Kon Junzo

Born 1893 in Hirosaki, Aomori, Kon moved to Tokyo with his family in 1906, and set out to become a painter. After studying at the Taiheiyo Gakai and Hakubakai Aoibashi Yoga institutes, he trained under Okada Saburosuke and Fujishima Takeji at the Hongo Institute for Western Painting. In 1919, his work Balalaika was accepted into the prestigious 1st Teiten Exhibition. While working in Shiseido’s design department, the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake prompted his return to Aomori. There he shifted his focus to copperplate printing and lithography, collaborated on “modernology” surveys with his older brother, Kon Wajiro, and mentored young artists. He also taught drawing at the Aomori Prefectural Normal School and worked in the editorial department of the Tō-Ō Nippō Press, producing the 12-volume Aomori-ken Gafu [Picture album of Aomori Prefecture] in 1934. Seeking a fresh start as a printmaker, Kon returned to Tokyo in 1939, where he co-founded the Japan Etching Society in 1940, and published Hanga no Shin Giho [New printmaking techniques] in 1943. He passed away in 1944, amid severe financial hardship.