The Genuis of Japanese Prints Ancient and Modern

11 August – 1 September 2023

The Genuis of Japanese Prints Ancient and Modern

excerpt

The Genuis of Japanese Prints Ancient and Modern
11 August — 1 September 2023

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Cat 22: Watanabe NOBUKAZU 1838 – 1912

Considered the best student of Chikanobu, he worked in a variety of genres from pictures of beautiful women to famous views of modernizing Tokyo, including depictions of domestic industrial exhibitions, the emperor and empress, and Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese War prints. By Moonlight is his masterpiece.

By Moonlight: at Oiso, Heian Court ladies paying music in Oiso.

Published by Yokoyami Ryohachi, 1891
39 x 72.40cm

$ 2750

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Cat 23: Nagamachi Chikuseki ( active c. 1900)

Known, principally for a small number of charming bird and flower prints.

Cotton Flower in the wind

published c. 1900
23.5 x 24.5

SOLD

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Cat 24: Kamisaka SEKKA (1866- 1942)

Sekka was an important artistic figure in early twentieth-century Japan. In 1901, he was sent by the Japanese government to Glasgow where he was heavily influenced by Art Nouveau. Returning to Japan, he taught at the newly opened Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, experimented with Western tastes, styles, and methods, and incorporated them into his otherwise traditional Rinpa-style works which accentuate the flatness of the image surface and emphasis pattern and design. Eight prints from the series World of Things (Momoyo-gusa) first published in three accordion style albums by Unsodo, 1909 Unsodo subsequently re-issued individual prints using the original carved blocks.

Birds and Reeds in Winter

34.2 x 49.5 cm

$ 1800

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Cat 25: Kamisaka SEKKA (1866- 1942)

Iris Garden

34..2 x 49.5 cm

$ 1800

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Cat 26: Kamisaka SEKKA (1866- 1942)

Prayer slip in plum blossom

334.2 x 49.5 cm

$ 1800

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Cat 27: Kamisaka SEKKA (1866- 1942)

Kabuki Actor in Shibaraku role

34.2 x 49.5 cm

$ 1800

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Cat 28: Torri KOTONDO (1900 – 1976)

One of the great artists of the first half of the 20th Century, Kotondo excelled in the art of the beautiful women print. However, his output was very small (only 22) and the number of each image also small. As with Goyo, with the permission of his heirs, small runs of a limited edition of his beauty prints were produced, in this case by the publisher Ishukankokai.

Beauty combing her hair

Signed, Kotondo, Seal, Kotondo. Publisher, Ishukankokai, Carver, Ito Susumu/Watanabe Yoshiaki

First published 1933, this edition published 1980s
55 x 40.5 cm

$ 4400

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Cat 29: Torri KOTONDO (1900 – 1976)

Asenegami

From the series "Twelve Aspects of Women"

The original print published in 1930s caused so much scandal that the government considered the print to be "not good for the public moral". The police confiscated the blocks and destroyed them after 70 impressions.

Originally published by Ikeda in 1932, this print was published by Ishu Kanko Kai in the 1980s
55 x 40.5 cm

$ 4400

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Cat 30: Tsuchiya KOITSU (1870 – 1949)

Like Hatsui, Koitsu Tsuchiya's prints celebrate Japan's scenic beauty. Through subtle effects of light and shadow, Koitsu endowed his work with an aura of bewitching beauty. .Although he studied with ukiyo-e masters from the age of 15 and worked as a lithographer in the 1920s, he is known for his Japanese landscape prints in the Shin Hanga style which he perfected under the guidance of the publisher, Watanabe, from his meeting with him in 1931.

Mt. Fuji Seen from Lake Sai

First published in 1933; this later edition by Doi Sadaichi from the original woodblocks in 1938
27 x 39 cm

SOLD

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Cat 31: Ohara KOSON 1877-1945

Ohara Koson is considered by many to be the foremost 20th century designer of bird and flower prints, (kacho-e). His designs for a primarily Western market and range from haunting realism to humorous depictions of animals at play. His prints continue to be appreciated as among the finest examples of animal and botanical portraits produced by the Shin-hanga (New Prints) movement.

Playful Monkeys

Published by Adachi, c.1930
34 x 18.3 cm

$ 1200

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Cat 32: Ohara KOSON 1877-1945

Pheasant beside a waterfall

Published by Daikokuya c.1910
37 x 18.9 cm

$ 1200

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Cat 33: Ohara KOSON 1877-1945

Night Heron

Published by Daikokuya c.1910
37 x 18.9 cm

$ 1200

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Cat 34:Ohara KOSON 1877-1945

Leaping trout

Published by Daikokuya c.1912
37 x 18.9 cm

SOLD

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Cat 35: Tsuchiya RAKUSAN (1896 - 1976)

Rakusan Tsuchiya was born in Kyoto and studied art under the great Kyoto artist, Seiho Takeuchi. Rakusan spent the two years between mid 1933 and mid 1935 producing two parallel series of woodblock prints: Koushisei Print Selection and 100 Birds and Flowers. His detailed and intricately coloured woodblock prints were sold by his studio before W.W.II until around 1948.

Thistle and Swallowtail butterfly
from the series Koushisei's Print Selections 1934 – 35

23.2 x 36.2 cm

$ 1100

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Cat 36: Tsuchiya RAKUSAN (1896 - 1976)

Cyprus and Dollar Bird
99 in the series, Rakuzan Kachou Gafu [100 Series]

published 1934 - 35
37 x 47 cm

$ 1200

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Cat 37: Unsigned

Waves at night towering over a ship of archers storming a castle

From a series of design prints depicting costume elements, props and stage sets for Noh and Kyogen plays

original woodblock print, Published c 1930
23.5 x 32.4 cm

$ 770

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Cat 38: Tomikichiro TOKURIKI 1902 – 1999

A passionate participant of the ‘Creative Prints’ (Saskku hanga) movement, dispensing with printers/publishers and self designing, carving and printing. Known for his pastel coloured landscapes this whimsical ‘cartoon’ is an exception.

Rabbits escaping the rain

Published 1930s
26 x 29.5 cm

SOLD

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Cat 39: Tadashi OSAKA (b.1937)

Born in 1937 in Osaka, Tadashi Osaka studied architecture and later art under Fumio Kitaoka and Waichi Hayashi. A member of Shunyo-kai Art Society and a frequent participant In the prestigious annual CWAJ (College Women of Japan) Print Show, the major exhibition event in the world of art prints in Japan.

Yuki no Machi (Snow Town)

1981 A/P
woodblock print 48 x 52.8 cm

$1100

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Cat 40: Hideo TAKEDA (b. 1948)

fThe only contemporary Japanese artist to have had a solo exhibition at the British Museum, Lawrence Smith of the Museum suggests that the artist, "expresses the humour, pathos, cruelty, and sheer absurdity of life” Takeda, who styles himself as a caricaturist, rather than an artist, is perhaps the greatest artist of bizarre imagery in Japanese prints today.

Altamira Bullfrog

From the series, ‘Altamera, Moving Scultpure’ one of a set of 10 prints each depicting an animal skeleton referencing the Upper Paleolithic paintings of animals found in the cave at Altamira in Cantabria, Spain.

Ed. 82/120. Original silkscreen, printed, 1994 Signed in gold metallic ink

Published by Taninaka Silk Editions, Kyoto
52 x 71.8 cm

$ 2200

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Cat 41: Katsunori HAMANISHI (b.1949, Japan)

One of the world’s acknowledged masters of the most demanding of all printing techniques, the mezzotint. His work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The British Museum, Hokkaido Museum of Art, Japan, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Division – Works 71
Ed. 18/50

mezzotint, Published 1997
34.5 x 45 cm

$ 1750

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