Munakata Shiko was born in Aomori Prefecture and, in his youth, worked as a blacksmith's assistant to his father. At the age of 19 he took employment in an office and began painting outdoors in his spare time, modeling both his work and attire after Vincent van Gogh. With friends he organized an artists' society that held exhibitions of its members' work. In 1924 Munakata moved to Tokyo to study oil painting, and his first painting was accepted for exhibition in the Teiten's Western-style painting section in 1928. But, just as he began to win a reputation in painting, he started having doubts about the legitimacy of oil painting as a medium for a Japanese artist. He turned to wood-block printing, introduced to the tools of the trade by the print maker Hiratsuka Un'ichi (b. 1895). Munakata's primary subject matter was Buddhist themes, which he rendered in paintings using traditional materials, as well as in prints. His first important patron was Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961), an art critic and a founder of the Japanese Craft Movement. Yanagi bought a series of prints in 1936 for the new Japanese Folk Art Museum (Nihon Mingei-kan), and Munakata was drawn into the Folk Art movement. In 1959 Munakata founded the Nihon Hanga, an association to support print artists, and he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in 1970.