Japanese Asaji Kobayashi graduated from Kanazawa medical school in 1921 and became an ophthalmologist, later opening a practice in his hometown of Suzuka in 1931. During high school, he started painting, but took up woodcutting and printing under the influence of artist Umetarō Azechi and Un’ichi Hiratsuka. Beginning in 1929 Kobayashi joined and exhibited with Sosaku Hanga groups like the Japanese Creative Prints Society. Kobayashi mainly produced posters, wood cuts and prints. His most popular work was the print series Shin Nihon Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of New Japan) showing Japanese landscapes from occupied Taiwan in the South to the now Russian island of Sachalin in the North. Some of these images showed the recently imported sport of skiing in the local mountains. Kobayashi’s story is a tragic one, as he committed suicide in 1939 by jumping from a bridge. His entries Sukēto (_Skating) and Sukī (Skiing) were woodblock prints dated 1936.
Japan