Iwao Akiyama

Japanese visual artist Iwao Akiyama was born in 1921 in Southern Japan. He learnt drawing from a Buddhist monk as a child. He was originally trained in oil painting and later studied woodblock with Shiko Munakata for about six years. Whimsical owls is one of his main subject matters in his work. Cats, Buddhist monks and human figures are also a recurring themes in his drawings. His distinctive style is instantly recognizable, his use of black ink onto rough handmade paper and signature 'red dot' appears somewhere in every one of his works.

He has participated in over 250 one-man shows in Japan alone and has also participated in over 15 shows abroad, including two in U.S. in Seattle and San Francisco. His work is desired and collected all over the world, and held in collections including National Museum of England, London, the National Museum of Scotland, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Museum of Japanese Art, Haifa, Israel, and Cincinnati Museum of Art, USA. You can view more of his work here.