Taiso Yoshitoshi

Oniwaka and the Great Carp from Thirty-six Ghosts Series

1889

“War Chronicles of Osaka” (Osaka gunki no uchi). Okubo Hikozaemon, raising his sword, protects the hidden Tokugawa shogun from the spear of Gorô Matabei Mototsugu in a moonlit fores...

Shichirigahama, Sagami Province. A beauty in the foreground waves to her young companions, who run towards her on the beach. The beauty at left wears a western-style golden ring. We ...

Umewaka Shrine, from an untitled series of prints depicting Tokyo. A woman braces her umbrella against the rain and a man waits out the storm next to his jinriksha in this view of th...

"Sun, Moon and Stars". Three beauties enjoy a full moon on the veranda of a teahouse or restuarant. The woman on the left kneels and adjusts her lavishly printed kimono. The beauty in the center has her hair down, and behind her is a screen against which shadows are beautifully silhouetted, which adds an air of mystery. The seated woman on the right is perhaps a geisha, as we see a shamisen lying next to her. Before her is a tray with an assortment of foods. One may surmise that the beauties are being compared to the sun, the moon, and the stars. On the left we glimpse a full moon shining over the peaceful bay, and boats at harbor. Original first edition Japanese color woodblock print triptych...

"Grave of Santa Anna's Leg" Original Woodblock Print, Signed Artist's Proof Boldly colored woodblock print by Carol Summers (American, 1925-2016). This piece is a segment of a grave, with a headstone that has a skull and cross. There are two bright green plants flanking the headstone. Below the headstone and plants, there is a large arched blue shape, with a crescent moon and stars. A red leg, bent at the knee, cuts across the blue arch. Signed "Carol Summers" along the right edge of the blue shape. Numbered and titled "A/P Grave of Sant Anna's Leg" along the left edge of the blue shape. Presented in a silver colored aluminum frame. Frame size: 32.245"H x 27.25"W Paper size: 29.75"H x 24.5"W Carol Summers (1925-2016) has worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for it’s large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented. In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother. From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction and Icarus) was shown the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts...

"First Horse Day, 1896" - Chiyoda Palace - Japanese Woodblock by Chikanobu Yoshu Colorful and expressive court scne by Toyohara Chikanobu,"Yoshu" (Japanese, 1838-1912). This is the r...

"Various Himochi" Wagashi Festival Japanese Woodblock Print by Utagawa Toyokuni Rare oversized early 19th century 5-tiered woodblock by Utagawa Ichiyosai Toyokuni, (Japan, 1769-1825), a Japanese lord and wife oversee a sekku festival of food, music, and dolls or toys. '"oshi" is the first day of “Mi (Snake)” in the third month of the lunar calendar. This day, known in modern Japan as the Girls' Festival, originated in China as a form of purification ceremony in which water and drinking peach blossom wine were used to drive away evil. Many kinds of hishi-mochi appear in this picture of hina ningyo (dolls associated with Hinamatsuri, or the Girl’s Day) from Omochae. The custom of eating special dishes at events throughout the year and at milestones in people's lives has existed since ancient times. This paragraph specifically focuses on the annual event called sekku, and life events that involve eating sweets. Joshi is the first day of “Mi (Snake)” in the third month of the lunar calendar. This day, known in modern Japan as the Girls' Festival, originated in China as a form of purification ceremony in which water and drinking peach blossom wine were used to drive away evil. According to the Keiso saijiki, in ancient China, on the third day of the third lunar month, people ate “ryuzetsuhan,” which is the juice of gogyo (Jersey cudweed) mixed with rice flour and nectar. In Japan, there is a record in the Heian period history book Nihon Montoku tenno jitsuroku [839-5] that it was an annual event to make kusamochi using gogyo on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, which may have been influenced by Chinese customs. The tradition of eating kusamochi on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar continued after that. By the Edo period, however, hishimochi had come to be used as a sweet to serve on the third day of the third month. A picture of a hishimochi is included in the Morisada manko , which we mentioned in Part 1. According to it, hishimochi in the Edo period were often three layers of green-white-green instead of the now common red-white-green. However, it is possible to see from our collection that not all hishimochi were made in this way. Omochae published in 1857, is a good example. Omochae is a type of ukiyoe print...

In image of the Tokugawa family paying homage to Tosho-gu Shrine in Nikko. Tokyo: Matsuki Heikichi, 1896 Woodcut in ink with embossing and hand-coloring in watercolor on handmade m...