Pagoda at Yasaka, c. 1960s/1970s

Dimensions:
Sight: 11 x 14 1/2 in.
Framed: 18 1/2 x 22 3/4 x 1 in.

Karhu was born to a Finnish American family in rural Minnesota, north of Duluth, on November 23, 1927. He graduated from high school in 1946, joined the U.S. Army, and served in Japan in the late 1940s. After his military service, he attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and worked as an educational counselor in Minnesota. In 1955, three years after the end of the American occupation of Japan (1945–1952), Karhu moved to Kyoto as a Lutheran missionary with his wife, Lois. There, he worked at Christian bookshops and as an English teacher and began painting in oil and watercolor for leisure.

Karhu increasingly adopted specific elements of what he perceived to be a Japanese lifestyle. He stopped wearing Western clothing and donned the kimono; spoke Japanese; visited geisha houses; and socialized by going out to drink sake. He also made and played the shakuhachi instrument, and created netsuke and carved seals – practices that reportedly earned him a reputation for being "committed (…) to the value of Japan's culture."

Karhu began to experiment with ukiyo-e woodblock printing in the early 1960s. His work presented everyday scenes of Kyoto and Kanazawa, in the style of architectural genre prints. Karhu depicted monuments, restaurants, residential views, geisha houses, and street scenes. Early in this stage of his career, Karhu sold prints mainly to foreigners. As his international reputation spread, his clientele became increasingly Japanese. By the early 1970s, Karhu's work was well-known within Japan itself, and he became the first non-Japanese member of the Japan Print Association. He was known to be stubborn about his art: he refused to accept criticism but criticized Japanese artists whose works resembled his, on occasions even suggesting that they were committing plagiarism. Karhu had a competitive edge and was known to declare his disdain for group exhibitions, insisting that his presence attracted patrons from whom other artists unfairly profited.

In the early 1980s, Karhu lived in Kyoto, and operated a studio where his apprentices performed artistic tasks under his direction, carving woodblocks by instruction. In the late 1980s, Karhu moved to Kanazawa permanently, separating from his wife Lois. After moving, Karhu began an eighteen-year relationship with his business manager, Michiko Miyake. Although this relationship continued until his death, Lois Karhu nevertheless remained crucial to his career as a consultant for his art business.

Bio sourced from Wikipedia.