TSURUOKA, KAKUNEN

Tokutaro (Kakunen) Tsuruoka immigrated to America as a teen. He was known for his watercolors and, later, woodblock prints, while working as a Asian antiques dealer. In the mid-1930s, when interest in Japanese woodblock prints was extremely popular, Kakunen designed four woodblock prints (three of them depicted California landscapes and one of a parrot) and had them printed and published in Japan. Tsuruoka was interned by the US at the Poston, AZ camp, where he painted haunting images of the surrounding desert landscape and flora. After the war, he and his family moved to New York City where he resumed his career in antiques.