Willy Seiler

Willy Seiler was a German printmaker known for his hand-colored etchings of life in rural Japan. He was born in Dresden, Germany, where he studied art. Later, he continued his art studies in Munich. Seiler left Germany in 1928, apparently for good, and traveled the world. After World War II ended, he settled in Karuizawa, Japan and produced etchings and paintings of Japanese life. 

 

Seiler’s works were intended for non-Japanese people, primarily members of the American occupation force or Westerners in Japan. Otherwise, he would have been compelled to execute his work using the traditional Japanese woodblock technique and had to cooperate with a Japanese publisher for the complicated carving and printing process, as was done by most of Seiler’s Western artist contemporaries in Japan, such as Paul Jacoulet. Willy Seiler’s prints depicted picturesque scenes of Japanese and Korean landscapes and people that reflected Western people’s perceptions of Asia.