Komura Settai 小村雪岱
1887-1940. Born in Saitama Prefecture.
A Nihonga painter, illustrator, and book designer active from the Taisho to the early Showa period. His real name was Yasunami Taisuke, originally surnamed Komatsu (he was adopted into the Yasunami family in 1905). He completed the elective course in Nihonga at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, where he studied under Shimomura Kanzan and later became a pupil of Matsuoka Eikyu. After graduation, he earned a living producing preparatory drawings for reproductions of classical works at Kokkasha.
In 1914, he received the art name "Settai" from Izumi Kyoka after designing the cover for Kyoka's novel Nihonbashi, his first work in book design. Thereafter, he worked extensively on book design and illustration, primarily for Kyoka's publications. His reputation was firmly established through his illustrations for Kunieda Kanji's novel Osen, which began serialization in the Asahi Shimbun in 1933.
He also demonstrated remarkable talent in design and stage art. In 1918, he joined the design department of Shiseido (resigning in December 1923), where he contributed to advertising design and helped lay the foundation for the "Shiseido typeface," exhibiting a refined modern aesthetic. This exceptional sense of composition was also applied to stage design, where he worked on numerous productions, including Kasuga no Tsubone and Daibosatsu Toge at the Kabuki-za, as well as Ippongatana Dohyo-iri and Genroku Chushingura at the Tokyo Gekijo.
Known for a crisp, elegant style that reinterpreted Edo-period sensibilities in a modern form, he is often referred to as the "Harunobu of the Showa era."
