Shinzaburo Takeda (b.1935) - "Vamonos al Guatequé" Print

Shinzaburo Takeda (b.1935, Japan) is a Japanese-Mexican painter and printmaker. He was often referred to as the "most Mexican" by Oaxacan artists due to his deep integration with Oaxacan culture. He came to Mexico in 1963 and never left. Takeda studied mural paintings with Armando Carmona and Luis Nishizawa at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas "San Carlos" in Mexico City. He would later work for the Mexican Museo Nacional de las Culturas as a painter and graphic artist from 1965 to 1977. Then in 1978, he moved to Oaxaca, where he would work as an art professor at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. He was able to explore his longtime interests in documenting the traditional cultures of Mexico, such as their ceremonies and festivals, which have been the inspiration to a lot of his works. The Nahual is one of the indigenous cultures and belief systems that Takeda usually incorporates in his prints. The Nahual acts as a spirit guardian to each individual and reveals itself in the animal-human figures that take form as these totem-like figures in Takeda's work. His fascination with Mexican culture is very much present in his works.