Keisuke Serizawa (芹沢 銈介) - Master of Japanese Folk Art and Crafts

Serizawa Keisuke was born on May 13, 1895 in Shizuoka City, the second son of a draper, Oishi Kakujiro. After graduating from Shizuoka Middle School, he entered Tokyo Higher Technical School (presently Tokyo Institute of Technology) and studied design. After graduation, he returned to Shizuoka. At the age of 22, in 1917, he married Serizawa Tayo and changed his family name to Serizawa.
　He taught industrial design at the Shizuoka Technical Laboratory and Shizuoka Industrial High School. But two factors made him decide to become a dyeing artist. First, he discovered the existence of the craft in an essay by Yanagi Muneyoshi, the leader of the “Mingei Movement” and who later taught Serizawa throughout his life. The second factor was the chance to see the characteristic “Bingata” dyeing technique from the Okinawa District, Where he was deeply attracted by its beauty.
　In 1929, he sent his first work “Shakushinamon Kabekake”(wall drape) to the Kokugakai Exhibition and won the Kokugakai Prize. He was also admitted as a member of this group for his remarkable creative activity. In 1934, he and his family moved to Kamata, Tokyo, at the suggestion of Yanagi and he began dyeing full-time.
　He went several times to Okinawa after 1939 to study “Bingata.” He improved on Bingata and other dyeing techniques by using “Katagami (stencil paper).” His new technique was called “Kataezome.” He sent many his “Kataezome” works throughout the world.
　Late in his life he won great popularity with the many personal exhibitions held in Japan and abroad. The 1976 exhibition “Serizawa” at the Grand Palais in Paris firmly established his fame above all.

Source : Shizuoka City Serizawa Keisuke Museum
Other links :  
Tohoku Fukushi Daigaku
Mingei Kan (Japanese Folk Art and Crafts Museum)