Yumeji Takehisa
Taisho era (1912–26)
Donated by Mikio Nagata
Yumeji Takehisa (1884–1934) was born in Okayama Prefecture. In 1905, after dropping out of Waseda Jitsugyō High School, a college-preparatory school for Waseda University, he joined the Yomiuri Shimbun, where he contributed comics and articles for the newspaper. Encouraged by the Western-style painter Saburōsuke Okada to develop his individuality through self-taught art, Yumeji established his own unique style of depicting beautiful women.
In 1909, he published his first book of paintings, Yumeji Picture Collection: Spring Volume, which he illustrated and bound. His following collection, Yumeji-style Beauties, was a huge hit and cemented his pop status with the masses. He also enjoyed a prolific career as an illustrator, producing many works for magazines targeting women and girls published around the end of the Meiji era (1868–1911).