Grandfather's Portrait

I drew a portrait of my grandfather, Shigeharu Yamamoto, when I was in elementary school. Then it was sent to a prefectural art exhibition and won a prize. A teacher who knew my grandfather saw it there and exclaimed, “Oh, this is wonderful! It sure looks like Principal Yamamoto!”

Shinjo made this crayon sketch in 1919 using only memory and a magnifying glass to enlarge the face of Shigeharu Yamamoto (his Grandfather) from a class photograph.

As you can see, Shinjo Ito possessed a remarkable talent infusing real-life qualities into his creations.