Shimizu Seifū

The world of Omocha-e is an art that was made to make children's eyes light up. Using the traditional Japanese woodblock printing process, motifs from the world of play were put on paper. The motifs were cut out of the sheets and used for creative play. Omocha-e are prints that are counted among the well-known art of ukiyo-e. The artist Shimizu Seifu is one of the most famous artists of this art form. Seifu was much more than just an artist. The Japanese artist devoted himself with great intensity and passion to the traditional toys of Japan. He is considered a "professor of toys" and was a passionate collector of Japanese folk toys. Shimizu Seifu's path was not a straight one. He was the head of a successful Japanese trading company. Shimizu had studied the elements of Japanese artistic traditions. He was a calligrapher and had devoted himself to poetry and poetics. Shimizu took his artistic studies from Hiroshige III, an artist whose family had long defined the art of woodblock printing.