Biography Ueno, Makoto (1909 - 1980)

In 1909 Makoto Ueno was born in Kawanakajima, Nagano prefecture, as Makoto Uchimura. In 1936 he changed his name to Ueno, his wife's family name. Before that, in 1931, he had entered the teacher training division of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He didn't finish it however, since he became involved with communism and was subsequently arrested. He started working as a labourer, but also continued as an artist. He studied woodblock printing with Hiratsuka Un'ichi for five years. He became strongly influenced by the work of Käthe Kollwitz. Before the war he worked as an elementary school teacher in Tokyo, and as junior high school teacher in Kagoshima. In 1942 he contributed to Hiratsuka's Kitsutsuki hangashû.
After the war he became a full-time printmaker, remaining true to his communist convictions, and exhibiting in many communist countries. He is well-known for a series of woodblock prints about the atomic bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.