14 Facts About Keiko Minami

Keiko Minami was a Japanese artist, aquatint engraver, and poet.

Keiko Minami is best known for her pictograph-like aquatints with a whimsical, childlike aesthetic.

Keiko Minami was born in the Imizu District of Toyama Prefecture in 1911.

Keiko Minami was orphaned at a young age and was raised along with her sisters by their uncle.

Keiko Minami's mother, Kiyo, was a poet who studied in the Department of Japanese Literature at Japan Women's University.

Keiko Minami painted and wrote poetry in high school, and studied the art of children's stories under the Japanese novelist and poet Sakae Tsuboi.

Keiko Minami attended the School of Fine Arts Tokyo, now called the Tokyo University of the Arts, from 1927 until 1929.

Between early 30s and mid-40s, Minami likely returned to and stayed in Toyama.

Around that time, Keiko Minami met her future husband, the mezzotint artist Yozo Hamaguchi at Mori's studio.

Keiko Minami became a member of the Free Artist Association in 1955, and in 1956 her work Fukei was purchased by the French Ministry of Education.

In 1957, Hitsujikai no shojo was selected to be on the Christmas card from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in 1958, Heiwa no ki was reprinted on the greeting card of UNICEF, and Keiko Minami was named Official Artist of the United Nations in 1959.

In 1981, Keiko Minami moved from Paris to San Francisco and returned to Japan in 1996 after more than forty years abroad.

In 1984, Keiko Minami was nominated as an honorary member of the Japan Print Association.

In 2000, her husband Yozo Hamaguchi died and Keiko Minami died December 1,2004, at a hospital in Minato-ku, Tokyo, due to myocardial infarction.