Landscape to City: A Collection of 20th Century Japanese Prints
Landscape to City: A Collection of 20th Century Japanese Prints
Various Artists | A Collection of Ten Print Albums Windowing Texts (Shoso hanga-cho ju-renshu) | Showa period, 20th century
Lot Closed
November 18, 03:54 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 10,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Various Artists
A Collection of Ten Print Albums Windowing Texts (Shoso hanga-cho ju-renshu)
Showa period, 20th century
a complete set of nine albums, enclosed in original beige block-printed covers paper covers, each enclosing ten folded sheets on thick hand-made paper, each with print on left and poem, text or poetic inscription on right, published by Shimo Taro (Aoi Shobo), printed by Koshiba Kinji (1889-1961), each with limited edition Gentei nihyaku goju dai 97 ban (Limited to 250, number 97), and comprising:
1. Oda Kazuma (1882-1956), Life in the City (Tokai seikatsu), 10 lithograph illustrations, some signed with artist's cursive monogram and dated 1941, with various depictions of landscapes, portraits and genre scenes, dated Showa jurokunen kugatsu sanjunichi hakko (published 30th September 1941), signed to the reverse of the cover Kazuma and cursive monogram
2. Kawanishi Hide (1894-1965), Harbour Scenes (Koto jokei), 10 woodblock-printed illustrations depicting various nautical scenes, dated Showa jurokunen junigatsu jugonichi hakko (published 15th December 1941), signed to the reverse of the paper covers with artist's monogram Hide
3. Kawakami Sumio (1895-1972), Coming and Going During "Civilization and Enlightenment" (Bunmei kaika orai), 10 woodblock-printed illustrations, the title referring to the decade of rapid Westernisation in the 1870s, dated Showa jurokunen junigatsu jugonichi hakko (published 15th December 1941)
4. Sempan Maekawa (1888-1960), New Sketches of the Field (Shin Yagai Shohin ), 10 woodblock-printed illustrations with various scenes of nature and figures, dated Showa junananen shichigatsu nijugonichi hakko (published 25th July 1942)
5. Sekino Jun'ichiro (1914-1988), Window to Tokyo (Tokyo no mado), 10 copper-plate etchings, depicting still life, harbours, stone bridges, and various townscapes, dated Showa junananen shichigatsu sanjuichi-nichi hakko (published 31st July 1942)
6. Takeo Takei (1894-1983), Story of the Ancient Universe (Uchu setsu), 10 copper-plate etchings, dated Showa junananen junigatsu nijugo-nichi hakko (published 25th December 1943)
7. Henmi Takashi (1895-1944), Sentimental Notes on Water (Suiin fu), 10 woodblock-printed illustrations with a series of landscapes by ponds and streams of otherwise related to water, dated Showa junananen junigatsu nijugonichi hakko (published 25th December 1942), signed to the reverse of the paper covers Takashi
8. Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955), Insects, Fish, and Shellfish (Mushi, uo, kai), 10 woodblock-printed illustrations with additions of mimeographed photographic images and impressions from driftwood, dated Showa juhachinen sangatsu jugonichi hakko (published 15th March 1943)
9. Hiratsuka Unichi (1895-1997), Pictures and Words on a Circuit of Izu Peninsula (Izu Isshu Shoshi), 10 woodblock printed designs to left and text to right, illustrated with a series of landscapes and cityscapes around Izu, dated Showa juhachinen sangatsu jugonichi hakko (published 15th March 1943)
Each approx. 26.7 x 21.6 cm., 10½ x 8½ in.
Published by Shimo Taro, a close friend of Onchi Koshiro’s from the publishing house Aoi Shobo, nine artists collaborated on the project A Collection of Ten Print Albums Windowing Texts. All respectively contributing an album each, Henmi Takashi, Hiratsuka Un'ichi, Kawakami Sumio, Kawanishi Hide, Maekawa Senpan, Oda Kazuma, Onchi Koshiro, Seino Jun'ichiro, and Takei Takeo were enlisted to execute the series. Each album is enclosed in a beige paper cover printed to the front and back monochromatically from a block designed by the artist. Apparently, all except Hiratsuka’s album were printed mechanically.1
The contents of each reveal a set of ten deluxe folded sheets of thick, artisanal Japanese mulberry paper, bearing an illustration to the left and a text inscription to the right. Lavishly produced, the set belies a surprising degree of luxury considering the shortage of materials and supply between the years of 1941-45 at the height of wartime – with this in mind it is unlikely at this period of shortages that 250 copies were actually printed as the limited edition numbering suggests.2
Onchi’s contribution has been described as one of the artist’s ‘graphic and literary masterpieces, the laconic yet forceful designs matching poetry simultaneously direct and mysterious’.3
The companion poem to the Spider illustration has been translated in Lawrence Smith, Japanese Prints during the Allied Occupation 1945-1952, (London, 2002), p. 88 :
From where did she come to lay in that stock of mathematics?
On one thread she stares at the heavens
Antennas gleam in the sky
The sticky ball is methodically distributed
TIME TIME TIME
Then it becomes a pendulum
1. Helen Merrit and Nanako Yamada, Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, (Honolulu, 1992), p. 272-3.
2. Lawrence Smith, Japanese Prints during the Allied Occupation 1945-1952, (London, 2002), p. 88.
3. Ibid.
For another example of Insects, Fish, Shellfish in the collection of the British Museum, museum number 1994,1217,0.2, go to:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1994-1217-0-2