Kunihiro WATANABE

Born in Ehime Prefecture in 1983.

After working as a manga artist's assistant, he attempts to connect with art

history using the techniques and concepts of Japanese manga as his

foundation.

Among the three major comic traditions (Japanese manga, bande dessinée,

and American comics), the predominant use of black-and-white expression is

a distinctive characteristic of Japanese manga. Rooted in Katsushika Hokusai's

Hokusai Manga and having evolved as an offshoot of ukiyo-e, Japanese manga

has unmistakably inherited the lineage of ukiyo-e, including the aesthetics of

line-based expression and negative space.

The word "Ukiyo" carries meanings of "the present world" and "the transient

world,

" and "ukiyo-e" refers to pictures that Edo-period artists created using

the techniques of their time to depict the scenes of their era.

I create art by defining the act of depicting contemporary life using manga

techniques derived from ukiyo-e as "Contemporary Ukiyo-E."