Masters of the Woodblock: Important Japanese Prints

Masters of the Woodblock: Important Japanese Prints

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 18. Eishosai Choki (active circa 1786-1808) | Open seam (Hokorobi) | Edo period, late 18th century.

Eishosai Choki (active circa 1786-1808) | Open seam (Hokorobi) | Edo period, late 18th century

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Lot Closed

July 21, 01:18 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 50,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Eishosai Choki (active circa 1786-1808)

Open seam (Hokorobi)

Edo period, late 18th century


woodblock print, signed Shiko ga (Pictured by Shiko), censor's seal kiwame (approved), published by Tsutaya Juzaburo (Koshodo), circa 1797; with collector's seal WS to verso


Vertical oban: 36.5 x 23.8 cm., 14⅜ x 9⅜ in.

Werner Schindler (1905-1986)
Kondo Eiko, Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Prints from the Schindler Collection, (Tokyo, 1985), no. 66, p. 66.

A girl mends the sleeve of a young man's kimono with needle and thread as he sits beside her with a cherry tree in blossom overhanging. The border framing the lower half terminates in a profusion of sakura flowers that appear almost like clouds in their form. The pale, tea-like colour of the bloom is printed in kimedashi, a technique used to raise the paper surface of a print to imbue a slight three-dimensionality. Other similarly designed prints by Choki suggest that this print is part of an untitled series.


For a simialr impression of the same print in the collection of the British Museum, museum number 1906,1220,0.248, go to:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1906-1220-0-248