He received a commission to design a large Japanese-lacquered
zelkova shelf called “kingin-sai kazari tsubo” for the Ume-no-Ma audience room of
Tokyo Imperial Palace.[1]
In November 1914, Tomimoto married
Otake Kazue (also known as 'Kokichi'), a niece of the artist
Otake Chikuha. Kazue was at one time a member of the feminist literary group Seito (publishers of the magazine of the same name,
Bluestocking). A controversial figure in her youth, Kazue had a close relationship (and, it was thought, an infatuation) with
Raicho Hiratsuka. It is thought that Tomimoto may have drawn an early draft of the woodblock print which Otake finished and submitted to Seito, which appeared as the cover of the 1913 New Year's issue of Seito magazine.[2]
After marrying, the couple moved to Nara, Japan. Tomimoto and Kazue had three children together, but later separated.[3]
Honors
He was a recipient of the
Order of Culture. He was also named a Living National Treasure.
^Raicho Hiratsuka (trans. Teruko Craig), In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun – The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist(『元始、女性は太陽であった』, Genshi, josei wa taiyō de atta),pp.186, 205
^Raicho Hiratsuka (trans. Teruko Craig), In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun – The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist(『元始、女性は太陽であった』, Genshi, josei wa taiyō de atta),pp.217, 324