St. Olaf College

Sadao Watanabe

printmaker
Japan
1913 - 1996

View objects by this artist.

Sadao Watanabe was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1913. He was raised Buddhist until his parents died when he was ten years old. At that time, he was invited to a Christian church supposedly by either a neighbor or teacher; he officially converted at the age of 17. When he was an adolescent, he apprenticed under the textile artist Keisuke Serizawa, dyeing fabric in the traditional style used for in Okinawa, known as katazome. He was also taught the style kappazuri, a method originally meant for cloth dyeing that Keisuke had adapted to be used with rice paper for prints. Later he studied under Yanagi Soetsu, a leading member of the Japanese folk art movement.
Sadao is best known now for his prints depicting Biblical narratives. He uses the traditional stencil printing techniques he learned in his youth, and he dresses characters in traditional Japanese garments while placing them in Japanese settings to make the stories more accessible to Japanese audiences. He continued to spread the Christian story and was a very successful artist internationally until his death in Tokyo in 1996.

Madison Duran ‘20
March 2019

Sources
Bowden, Sandra. “Watanabe.” Bowden Collections,
www.bowdencollections.com/watanabe/watanabe.html.
Wanczura, Dieter. “Sadao Watanabe - 1913-1996.” Artelino, Artelino, 12 Dec. 2018,
www.artelino.com/articles/sadao-watanabe.asp.
“Sadao Watanabe.” ArtNet, ArtNet, www.artnet.com/artists/sadao-watanabe/.