12 Facts About Rosanjin

Kitaoji Rosanjin was the pseudonym for a noted artist and epicure during the early to mid-Showa period of Japan.

Rosanjin was born in what is part of Kita-ku, Kyoto, as the younger son of the head priest of Kamigamo Shrine.

In 1903, Rosanjin moved to Tokyo with the intent of studying Japanese calligraphy, winning first prize in a contest by the Japan Art Academy the following year.

In 1915, Rosanjin moved to Kyoto and Kanazawa, where he first began experimenting with decorated ceramics and developing his aesthetic theories on the relationship between food and the design of the ceramics on which it was served.

However, the Great Tokyo earthquake of 1923 destroyed most of his ceramics collection, so Rosanjin began making pottery to replace it.

Rosanjin began by imitating the classic forms of Japanese Mino, Shigaraki, Bizen and Kutani ceramics, and for classic blue-and-white wares and colored porcelains of Ming period China.

Rosanjin was noted as a scholar of antique pottery publicizing his work in a privately published periodical, Hoshigaoka, during the 1930s.

Also in 1954, Rosanjin accepted an invitation by the Rockefeller Foundation to hold a solo exhibition of his works in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art.

Rosanjin continued on to Europe, where he met with Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

Rosanjin was designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government in 1959, but was one of the very few people to decline the honor.

Rosanjin died in Yokohama in 1959 of cirrhosis of the liver brought about by a liver fluke infection.

Rosanjin's grave is at the temple of Saiho-ji in Kyoto.