Yamaguchi Gen was a leading member of the sōsaku hanga print movement, known for abstract prints made with novel printing materials. He was born to a family of sake brewers in Shizuoka prefecture in what is now Fuji City. His parents took him with them to Taiwan in 1914, and while there, he met Fujimori Shizuo (1891–1943), who interested him in printmaking. On his return to Tokyo in 1921, he joined Itto-en, an anti-materialist organization in which members went door-to-door offering to do menial labor as a form of purification. By chance he went to Onchi Kōshirō’s home, after which he became a printmaker. Yamaguchi’s almost daily visits to Onchi’s house prompted the 1939 formation of the Ichimokukai (First Thursday Society), a print study group led by Onchi. Yamaguchi first received international recognition with a prize at Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1956, and he was the first Japanese artist to win the Grand Prix at Lugano, Switzerland, in 1958.
