Kawanishi was born in the city of Kobe, where he lived all his life and which was the main subject of his work, especially its cosmopolitan life as an international port. He taught himself woodblock printing after seeing a print by Yamamoto Kanae and worked in a post office rather than the family business so he could spend more time on his art. He worked from the beginning in a very colourful style with flat, simplified shapes which has its origin in the Art Deco poster style of the 1920s. He exhibited from 1923 with the Sosaku Hanga Kyokai (Creative Print Association). He was a prolific artist, producing some 1,000 sheets, including a number of series. Among the most important of these were 'Showa bijin fuzoku junitai' ('Twelve Popular Beauties of the Showa Era', 1929), 'Kobe junikagetsu fukei' ('Views of Kobe in the Twelve Months', 1931), 'Kobe hyakkei' ('One Hundred Views of Kobe', 1933-5) and 'Shin Kobe hyakkei' ('One Hundred New Views of Kobe', 1953). He also produced a number of printed albums and books. In spite of his individuality Kawanishi remained closely associated with the 'Sosaku Hanga' movement and contributed to several of its magazines, to 'One Hundred New Views of Japan', to the first three collections of the Ichimoku-kai (1944, 1946, 1947) and to the post-war portfolios 'Nihon minzoku zufu' and 'Nihon jozoku-sen' (both 1946). His son Kawanishi Yuzaburo (b.1923) works much in his father's style but with more international subjects. - British Museum