CHIKANOBU, Yoshu Figurative Prints

Shunga: Twelve Signs of the Zodiac - Goat Color woodcut with gauffrage (embossing) Unsigned (as usual) Format: Shikishiban Publisher: Privately produced Unusually well preserved with the fugitive blue still intact Image size: 5-1/8 x 5-3/4" Sheet size: 5 3/8 x 6 1/4" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In this Japanese name, the surname is Isoda. Isoda Koryūsai (礒田 湖龍斎, 1735–1790) was a Japanese ukiyo-e print designer and painter active from 1769 to 1790. Life and career Koryūsai was born in 1735 and worked as a samurai in the service of the Tsuchiya clan. He became a masterless rōnin after the death of the head of the clan and moved to Edo (modern Tokyo) where he settled near Ryōgoku Bridge in the Yagenbori area. He became a print designer there under the art name Haruhiro in 1769, at first making samurai-themed designs. The ukiyo-e print master Harunobu died in 1770, and about that time Koryūsai began making prints in a similar style of life in the pleasure districts. Koryūsai was a prolific designer of individual prints and print series,[1] most of which appeared between 1769 and 1881. In 1782, Koryūsai applied for and received the Buddhist honour hokkyō ("Bridge of the Law") from the imperial court and thereafter used the title as part of his signature. His output slowed from this time, though he continued to design prints until his death in 1790. Works Koryūsai created a total of 2,500 known designs, or an average of four a week. According to art historian Allen Hockley, "Koryūsai may ... have been the most productive artist of the eighteenth century". The series Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana no hatsumoyō, 1776–1781) ran for 140 prints, the longest known ukiyo-e print series of beauties. He designed at least 350 hashira-e pillar prints, numerous kachō-e bird-and-flower prints, a great number of shunga erotic prints, and others. Ninety of his nikuhitsu-ga paintings are known, making him one of the most productive painters of the period. Legacy Despite Koryūsai's productivity and popularity—both in his time and amongst later collectors—his work has attracted little scholarship. The first ukiyo-e histories written in the West in the 19th century elevated certain artists as exemplars; Koryūsai's work came to be seen as too indebted to Harunobu, who died in 1770, and inferior to that of Kiyonaga, whose peak period came in the 1880s. An example is Woldemar von Seidlitz's Geschichte des japanischen Farbenholzschnittes ("History of Japanese colour prints", 1897), the most popular of the early ukiyo-e histories, which paints Koryūsai as a successor to Harunobu and a rival of Kiyonaga in the 1770s who slipped into mediocrity and imitation of his rival by the end of the decade.[5] Interest lay mainly in the details of Koryūsai's life—a samurai who received court honours was unusual in the proletarian world of ukiyo-e. In 2021, contemporary woodblock printmaker David Bull...

A nostalgic image of a bucolic farmyard and thatched cottage, hearkening to a bygone era. Etching with drypoint on laid watercolor paper, 9 7/8 x 11 3/4 inches, (251 x 229 mm), full...

"Enshoku Sanju-roku Kasen" (Thirty-six Enchanting Flowers) Woodblock on paper Elegant woodblock print by Toyohara Kunuchika (Japanese, 1835-1900). Three women are in talking with each other inside, while a man waits outside holding a bag of some kind. The colors in this piece are rich and saturated, primarily blues, greens, and purple. Mat size: 16"H x 20"W Paper size: 14.75"H x 9.88"W Born in 1835, Toyohara Kunichika grew up in the Kyobashi district of Edo in the midst of merchants and artisans. In 1848, at age 13, he was accepted as an apprentice into the studio of Utagawa Kunisada I...

ONE WEEK ONLY SALE This woodcut print is an expressionist print on one of the poems from Max Weber's poetry collection "Primitives: Poems and Woodcuts". This work is signed in penci...

This 18.75" x 15.75" framed, woodblock print was produced by German Renaissance artist, Albrecht Dürer, circa 1511. The 5.75" x 4.63" print floats on white mat board and is presented...

Procession Of A Daimyo - Original Woodblock Print Original woodblock print depicting the procession of a Daimyo. Ten Japanese soldiers are seen as they aid in transporting the Daimy...

Kiyomi Barrier & Seiken Temple Near Okitsu - Japanese Woodcut Print on Rice Paper Woodblock print of boats in a harbor by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858). Originally publish...

"Mount Otawa Moon: Bright God Tamura" - Woodblock on Paper by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi From the series "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" This piece depicts the general Sakanoe no Tamura...

Edo Meisho woodblock print of a famous Japanese coastal dock. This woodblock is most likely apart of the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo." The woodblock print is printed on r...

Shin-machi Bridge at Hodogaya - Japanese Woodcut Print on Rice Paper Woodblock print of travelers on a bridge by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-185...

Kiyomizu Temple, Scenes of Famous Places along Tôkaidô Road - Woodblock on Paper Full Title: Kyoto: Kiyomizu Temple (Kyô Kiyomizudera), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along...

"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...