About the artist:

Japanese Painter, Woodblock Print Artist, and Printer (1896 - 1976) Other names: 土屋浩三 Tsuchiya Kouzou, 土屋楽山 Tsuchiya Rakuzan, 土屋篁子 Tsuchiya Koushi, 楽山篁子生 Rakuzan Koushisei, 篁子生 Koushisei, 篁子 Koushi, 楽山 Rakuzan, Rakusan * *Name clarifications: As in English, Japanese proper names may be written and pronounced differently from what might be expected. Therefore in either language it is not always possible to guess the spelling from the pronunciation (or vice versa). According to the artist himself, the proper spelling of his art name when writing in Western style is "Rakusan" (with [s]). When including his family name in similar circumstances, he placed it after his art name in Western fashion, "Rakusan Tsuchiya". The written letter [s] is pronounced [z] in many English words, and Rakusan's principal art name was and is pronounced with [z] in Japanese. Therefore, today persons unfamiliar with the proper English spelling sometimes refer to the artist as "Rakuzan" (with [z]). (This is apparently a new practice and there is no evidence that anyone who actually met or knew Rakusan ever used the [z] spelling.) When writing in Japanese, if Rakusan included his family name, he placed it before his art name according to normal Japanese usage, 土屋楽山 Tsuchiya Rakuzan. Rakusan was born 土屋浩三 Tsuchiya Kouzou, and during his early studio years he used that name in his role as a printer/publisher. The other name variations are all art names (號 gou), used by themselves or in combinations as signatures on artworks and on colophons. Rakusan was apprenticed to the great Kyoto artist 竹内栖鳳 Takeuchi Seihou (1864-1942), usually called "Seiho". Rakusan artworks show many parallels to works by his master as well as to those of other contemporary Seiho students. [Please note that although they share the same family name and profession, Rakusan and the contemporary woodblock print artist, 土屋光逸 Tsuchiya Koitsu (1876-1946), are not the same person and are in fact unrelated (see provided link).] *Orthography: Romanized Japanese when here printed in italic type serves as a phonetic transcription to indicate the actual pronunciation of written Japanese. Some names and words of Japanese origin have been adopted into English with spellings which may no longer be phonetically accurate. Written as English these forms appear here in normal type (for example, Rakusan as opposed to 楽山 Rakuzan). For typing convenience Rakusan's writings in the traditional Japanese scripts have been retranscribed here to read from left to right. Because Rakusan used older kanji variants, modern transcriptions have been included where necessary to conform to modern Japanese usage.