Kon Junzo

Kon Junzo was born in 1893 (Meiji 26) in Hirosaki to a family of physicians to the Tsugaru domain. Kon Wajiro, the founder of modernology (kogengaku), was his brother, five years his senior. He went to Tokyo to become a painter and studied at the Taiheiyo Gakai institute, the Hakuba-kai Aoibashi institute and the Hongo institute of Western painting. He was first accepted at the 7th Bunten in 1913 with Early Autumn in the Park, and he also worked on modern theater sets and in the design department of Shiseido.

After losing his home in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, he moved to Aomori City and turned to the study and making of etchings and lithographs. In 1933 he became a part-time editorial staff member at the To-o Nippo newspaper and began publishing Aomori-ken Gafu, depicting the nature and customs of the prefecture; it was completed the next year in 12 volumes (100 prints). In 1936 he founded the Aomori Etching Association.

He moved to Tokyo with his family in 1939, but overwork to support the household in wartime made him ill, and he died on September 28, 1944. His study of printmaking, Hanga no Shingiho, was published in 1943. His works escaped the Aomori air raid, and the Aomori Museum of Art introduces him as one of the main artists in its collection.