Showa Prints and Multiples

A fine, atmospheric impression, with fresh colors; the full sheet, in excellent condition. Signed 'Hasui' with the artist’s seal 'Kawase', lower left. Published by Watanabe Shozaburo with the Watanabe 6mm round seal indicating a lifetime impression printed between 1945 - 1957. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 14 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches (362 x 238 mm); sheet size 15 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (391 x 264 mm). An impression of this work is in the permanent collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation. ABOUT THE ARTIST “I do not paint subjective impressions. My work is based on reality...I can not falsify...(but) I can simplify…I make mental impressions of the light and color at the time of sketching. While coloring the sketch, I am already imagining the effects in a woodblock print.” — Kawase Hasui Hasui Kawase (1883–1957) is the most celebrated Japanese print designer of the shin-hanga ('new prints') movement. His prints, produced under the guidance and discerning eye of his publisher, Watanabe Shozaburo, represent the modern legacy of the renowned 19th-century Ukiyo-e masters Hiroshige and Hokusai. Hasui was able to evoke the fleeting beauty of Japan during the interwar period as no other printmaker of his time could. Hasui's work enjoyed huge popularity upon producing his first print in 1918. Watanabe recognized and developed the enormous potential of the American market, resulting in Hasui's prints achieving high prices at auctions in New York as early as the 1920s. After the Second World War, his prints became highly sought-after collectible works among the American occupying forces in Japan. Hasui designed more than 600 prints during the 40-year span of his artistic career, and in 1956, he was named a 'Living National Treasure' of Japan. Hasui’s woodblock...

Hokuto Tamamura (1893-1951), 'The Spirit of the Wine' (Shuten Dōji) - from Dai Chikamatsu Zenshu (The Complete Works of Chikamatsu)', color woodblock, 1923-26. Signed 'Hokuto'. A fin...

The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series Collected Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fûkei shû II Kansai hen), woodblock print, 1934. A very fine, atmospheric impression, with fresh colors; the full sheet, in excellent condition. Signed 'Hasui' with the artist’s seal 'Kawase', lower left. Published by Watanabe Shozaburo with the Watanabe ‘D’ seal indicating an early impression printed between 1931 - 1941. Stamped faintly 'Made in Japan' in the bottom center margin, verso. Horizontal ôban; image size 9 3/8 x 14 1/4 inches (238 x 362 mm); sheet size approximately 10 5/16 x 15 1/2 inches ( 262 x 394 mm). Collections: Art Institute of Chicago; Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna); Honolulu Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum in Warsaw; University of Wisconsin-Madison. ABOUT THE ARTIST “I do not paint subjective impressions. My work is based on reality...I can not falsify...(but) I can simplify…I make mental impressions of the light and color at the time of sketching. While coloring the sketch, I am already imagining the effects in a woodblock print.” — Kawase Hasui Hasui Kawase...

Shoko Uemura, 'Inside the Flowers (Java Sparrow and Peach Blossoms)', color woodcut, c. 1950s, edition 300. Signed in ink with the artist’s red seal beneath. A superb impression, with fresh, delicate colors, on cream wove Japan paper; the full sheet with margins (9/16 to 1 3/8 inches), in excellent condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 12 3/4 x 18 1/2 inches (324 x 470 mm); sheet size 14 3/4 x 20 3/16 inches (375 x 513 mm). Published by The Momose Print Company of Tokyo. ABOUT THE ARTIST Uemura Shoko (1902-2001) was the son of the famous shin-hanga artist Uemura Shoen...

Hiroshi Yoshida, 'Chion-in Temple Gate (Sunset)' from the series 'Eight Scenes of Cherry Blossoms (Sakura hachi dai: Sakura mon)', color woodblock print, 1935. Signed in brush 'Yoshida' and in pencil 'Hiroshi Yoshida'. A superb, early impression, with fresh colors; the full sheet with margins, on cream Japan paper; an area of slight toning in the top right sheet corner, not affecting the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Marked with a jizuri (self-printed) seal, upper left margin. Self-published by the artist. Image size 9 5/8 x 14 3/4 inches (444 x 375 mm); sheet size 10 7/8 x 16 inches (276 x 406 mm). Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Provenance: M. Nakazawa, Tokyo. Literature: Japanese Landscapes of the 20th Century (Hotei Publishing calendar), 2001, May. Collections: Honolulu Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. ABOUT THE IMAGE Located in Kyoto, Chionin is the main temple of the Jodo sect of Japanese Buddhism, one of the most popular Buddhist sects in Japan, having millions of followers. The Sanmon Gate, Chionin's entrance gate, standing 24 meters tall and 50 meters wide, it is the largest wooden temple gate in Japan and dates back to the early 1600s. Behind the gate, a broad set of stairs leads to the main temple grounds. ABOUT THE ARTIST Painter and printmaker Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the Japanese 'shin hanga' (New Print) movement. Yoshida was born as the second son of Ueda Tsukane in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, a schoolteacher from an old samurai family. In 1891 he was adopted by his art teacher Yoshida Kasaburo in Fukuoka and took his surname. In 1893 he went to Kyoto to study painting, and the following year to Tokyo to join Koyama Shotaro's Fudosha private school; he also became a member of the Meiji Fine Arts Society. These institutions taught and advocated Western-style painting, greatly influencing Yoshida’s artistic development. In 1899 Yoshida had his first American exhibition at Detroit Museum of Art (now Detroit Institute of Art), making the first of many visits to the US and Europe. In 1902 he helped reorganize the Meiji Fine Arts Society, renaming it the Taiheiyo-Gakai (Pacific Painting...

Hajime Namiki, 'Weeping Cherry 16 A', color woodblock print, 2012, edition 200. Signed in pencil with the artist’s red seal. Titled, dated, and numbered ...

Ohara Koson (1877-1945), 'Carp and Water Chestnut', color woodblock print, 1926. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream Japan paper; the full sheet, in excellent condition. Signed 'Koson' with the artist’s red seal 'Koson'. Published by Watanabe Shozaburo. With the Watanabe 'C' seal in the lower right margin, indicating a lifetime impression printed between 1929-1942. Image size 13 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches (343 x 184 mm); sheet size 14 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (368 x 191 mm). Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Literature: 'Crows, Cranes, and Camellias: The Natural World of Ohara Koson', Newland, Amy R.: Jan Perree & Robert Schaap, Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2001. S39.1, pl 169. Collections: National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian), Smart Museum of Chicago (University of Chicago). In Japanese art, the carp represents good luck and good fortune. ABOUT THE ARTIST Koson Ohara...

Matsuno Sofu (1899-1963), 'Hagoromo - Noh', woodblock print, 1937. Signed 'Sofu' with the artist's seal, lower right. A fine impression, with fresh color...

Anonymous, Japanese Kimono Fabric Design, color woodcut, c. 1930. A superb impression, with fresh colors, fine graduations, and metallic gold motifs, on ...

Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge, 'Peking '25', woodblock print, published 1926. Signed, titled, dated, and annotated 'No 124' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh, undiminished colors; the full sheet, in excellent condition. Watanabe 6 mm seal, lower right, indicating an impression printed between 1945 and 1957. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 9 5/8 x 14 5/16 inches; sheet size 10 7/16 x 15 3/8 inches. ABOUT THE IMAGE A 'paifang', also known as a 'pailou', is a traditional style of Chinese architectural arch or gateway structure. It has been theorized that the paifang gate architecture was influenced by Buddhist torana temple gates. Paifang are designed with traditional Chinese architectural motifs including multi-tiered roofs, prominent supporting posts, and gracefully arched openings. This is an unusual ukiyo-e or 'floating world' woodcut published by Watanabe Shozaburo, Tokyo, in that the subject is of an early 20th-century scene in Peking, China. ABOUT THE ARTIST Cyrus Leroy Baldridge...

Thirsty: The Appearance of a Town Geisha - a So-Called Wine-Server - in the Ansei Era Color woodcut, 1888 Signed; Seal: Taiso (see photo) Plate 22 from the series "Thirty-two Aspects...

Title: Fireworks 花火 Series: The Second Collection of Modern Beauties (Gendai bijin shū dai nishū 現代美人集第二輯) Date: 1932 A young woman is shown enjoying the summer fireworks, her face shown in profile as she looks towards the display. She holds a summer fan on her lap, and her kimono features large blue stripes and is tied with a colorful obi that features a morning glory pattern. The summer evening sky is a soft grey rather than a deep black, perhaps reflecting the brightness of the fireworks. Numbered verso, from a limited edition of 250 prints. Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Publisher: Watanabe Shôzaburô Literature: See “All the Woodblock Prints of Shinsui Ito...

Seibutsu (Still Life) A Vase and Apples Color woodcut, 1925 Signed on the mount (support sheet) From: Dojin zasshi, Hanga Magazine, Volume 8, No. 8 Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet ...

A young apprentice geisha from Kyoto poses before a gold leaf screen. She is both alluring and slightly distant at the same time, not an easy balance for an artist to convey. This p...

A beautiful Japanese geisha dressed in a traditional robe shyly claps her hands together. She stands in front of a backdrop of a bamboo screen. This print...

Helen Hyde, 'The Bath', color woodblock print, edition not stated, 1905, Mason & Mason 59. Signed in pencil in the image, lower right. Numbered '96' in pencil in the image, lower left. The artist's monogram in the block, lower left, and 'Copyright, 1905, by Helen Hyde.' upper right. A superb impression with fresh colors on tissue-thin cream Japanese paper; the full sheet with margins (7/16 to 1 5/8 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 16 1⁄4 x 10 1⁄8 in. (413 x 260 mm); sheet size: 19 1⁄4 x 11 1⁄8 in. (489 x 283 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the following collections: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (De Young), Harvard Art Museums, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Terra Foundation for American Art, University of Oregon Museum of Art. ABOUT THE ARTIST Helen Hyde (1868-1919) was a pioneer American artist best known for advancing Japanese woodblock printmaking in the United States and for bridging Western and Japanese artistic traditions. Hyde was born in Lima, New York, but after her father died in 1872, her family relocated to Oakland, California, where she spent much of her youth. Hyde pursued formal art education in the United States and Europe. She enrolled in the San Francisco School of Design, where she took classes from the Impressionist painter Emil Carlsen; two years later, she transferred to the Art Students League in New York, studying there with Kenyon Cox. Eager to expand her artistic repertoire, Hyde traveled to Europe, studying under Franz Skarbina in Berlin and Raphael Collin in Paris. While in Paris, she first encountered Japanese ukiyo-e prints, sparking a lifelong fascination with Japanese aesthetics. After ten years of study, Hyde returned to San Francisco, where she continued to paint and began to exhibit her work. Hyde learned to etch from her friend Josephine Hyde in about 1885. Her first plates, which she etched herself but had professionally printed, represented children. On sketching expeditions, she sought out quaint subjects for her etchings and watercolors. In 1897, Hyde made her first color etchings—inked á la poupée (applying different ink colors to a single printing plate)—which became the basis for her early reputation. She also enjoyed success as a book illustrator, and her images sometimes depicted the children of Chinatown. After her mother died in 1899, Hyde sailed to Japan, accompanied by her friend Josephine, where she would reside, with only brief interruptions, until 1914. For over three years, she studied classical Japanese ink painting with the ninth and last master of the great Kano school of painters, Kano Tomonobu. She also studied with Emil Orlik, an Austrian artist working in Tokyo. Orlik sought to renew the old ukiyo-e tradition in what became the shin hanga “new woodcut prints” art movement. She immersed herself in the study of traditional Japanese printmaking techniques, apprenticing with master printer Kanō Tomonobu. Hyde adopted Japanese tools, materials, and techniques, choosing to employ the traditional Japanese system of using craftsmen to cut the multiple blocks and execute the exacting color printing of the images she created. Her lyrical works often depicted scenes of family domesticity, particularly focusing on women and children, rendered in delicate lines and muted colors. Through her distinctive fusion of East and West, Hyde’s contributions to Western printmaking were groundbreaking. At a time when few Western women ventured to Japan, she mastered its artistic traditions and emerged as a significant figure in the international art scene. Suffering from poor health, she returned to the United States in 1914, moving to Chicago. Having found restored health and new inspiration during an extended trip to Mexico in 1911, Hyde continued to seek out warmer climates and new subject matter. During the winter of 1916, Hyde was a houseguest at Chicora Wood, the Georgetown, South Carolina, plantation illustrated by Alice Ravenel Huger Smith in Elizabeth Allston Pringle’s 1914 book A Woman Rice Planter. The Lowcountry was a revelation for Hyde. She temporarily put aside her woodcuts and began creating sketches and intaglio etchings of Southern genre scenes and African Americans at work. During her stay, Hyde encouraged Smith’s burgeoning interest in Japanese printmaking and later helped facilitate an exhibition of Smith’s prints at the Art Institute of Chicago. During World War I, Hyde designed posters for the Red Cross and produced color prints extolling the virtues of home-front diligence. In ill health, Hyde traveled to be near her sister in Pasadena a few weeks before her death on May 13, 1919. She was buried in the family plot near Oakland, California. Throughout her career, Hyde enjoyed substantial support from galleries and collectors in the States and in London. She exhibited works at the St. Louis Exposition in 1897, the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo in 1901, the Tokyo Exhibition for Native Art (where she won first prize for an ink drawing) in 1901, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition in Seattle in 1909 (received a gold medal for a print), the Newark Museum in 1913, a solo show at the Chicago Art Institute in 1916, and a memorial exhibition in 1920, Detroit Institute of Arts, Color Woodcut Exhibition in 1919, New York Public Library, American Woodblock Prints...

Paul Jacoulet, 'Une Histoire très Drôle, Mongols', color woodblock print, 1949. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on the artist's handmade, personally watermarked Japan paper, in...

Paul Jacoulet ( France, Japan 1902 - 1960 ) Title: La Mariée Seoul, Corée Medium: Woodblock Print Size: 15.5 in. x 12 in. Movemen...

"The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa" - Original Japanese Print Japanese Print "The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa", from the series "Famous Places in Ed...

Kimono Fabric Design Color woodcut with pochoir embellishments on fine silver mica ground. 1936 Unsigned as usual From "Ukiyoe Kosode," a deluxe limited edition album of kimono fabri...

Morita Kanya XIII As Genta Kagesue in the play Genta Kando Color woodcut, 1928 Signed and stamped middle right edge Natori stamp lower left image edge Series: Collection of Creative...