Name clarifications: When writing or signing his own name in English, the artist always spelled his art name Rakusan with 's'. When he included his family name, he placed it after his art name in Western fashion, Rakusan Tsuchiya. Those who met the artist usually respected his preferred usage and spelling, and that practice is continued here. However, his art name was actually pronounced with a 'z' sound in Japanese, following the expected reading of the kanji characters. Therefore persons unfamiliar with the artist's preference routinely refer to him in English as Rakuzan with 'z' reflecting this pronunciation. When writing in Japanese, if Rakusan included his family name, he placed it before his art name according to normal Japanese usage, 土屋楽山 Tsuchiya Rakuzan.

Although they share the same family name and profession, Rakusan and the contemporary woodblock print artist, Tsuchiya Koitsu (1876-1946), are not related. [See Links]

* Romanized Japanese as used here indicates the actual pronunciation in spoken Japanese and is written in italic type. Some names and words of Japanese origin have been adapted into English with spellings which may no longer be phonetically accurate. Written as English these forms appear in normal type. Rakusan's writings in the traditional Japanese scripts have been retranscribed to read from left-to-right. Also, some character substitutions have been made to conform to modern Japanese usage.

Rakusan.net provides information about Rakusan Tsuchiya and his artworks to the public. This site is currently under construction and will eventually include additional research articles as well as a comprehensive catalogue of Rakusan artworks.

Rakusan.net, Rakusan.org, and Rakuzan.org are maintained by Michael Nichols for the Rakusan Archive Project, a non-profit organization.

© 2007, Dr Michael J P Nichols