Toshi Yoshida (1911-1995)
Sacred Grove (Kami no Mori)
Size: Chuban. Approximately 10.5 x 7.75 inches.
Date: 1941.
Artist's jikoku (self-carved) seal upper left margin.
Later edition (ca. 1970s-1980s) with impressed pencil signature.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition. Excellent.
Takahashi Shotei
Fuji from a restng-booth
Date: pre-1936.
Size: Approximately 7.75 x 5.25 inches.
Shotei seal at right.
Reference: S-6 in Shotei catalog.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Very faint diagonal crease in sky. Pencil note on back.
Kawase Hasui
Moonlit Night at Miyajima (Miyajima no Tsukiyo)
Size: Oban. Approximately 15.25 x 10.5 inches.
Signed and sealed lower right.
Date: 1947.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo. Red, round 6 mm publisher's seal at lower left, indicating a first edition (first state).
Reference: Hotei #497.
Condition: Print is fully adhered to backing board.
Hanten, called "suzukake" worn by a Shugen-sha or Yamabushi who practiced Shugendo. Shugendo is the Japanese unique religion combining Buddhism, Shintoism, and worship of nature (mountains). A practitioner (shugen-sha) trained himself in the holy mountains that is ascetic and very painstaking. It is made of hemp and weft of is hand-plied but warp is machine-spun...
Shotei Takahashi (Hiroaki) (1871-1945)
Riverside at Furukawa
Series: Famous Views of the Eastern Capital
Date: Pre-1923.
Size: 10 x 5 inches.
Shotei seal at lower right.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Reference: S-81 in Shotei catalog.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Two small pieces of tape at back margin. Left margin has spot.
- The blocks for this rare print were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
Takahashi Shotei
Drawing up seawater under moonlight.
The figures are engaged in saltmaking, likely at Suma Beach
Date: pre-1936.
Size: Approximately 7.5 x 5.25 inches.
Shotei's Rakutei seal at left.
Reference: S-50 in Shotei catalog.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Excellent. Pencil notes on back.
Takahashi Shotei
Moon Under a Bridge at Hakozaki
Size: Approximately 7.5 x 5.25 inches.
Shotei's Rakutei seal at left.
Date: pre-1936.
Reference: S-49 in Shotei catalog.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Wear on bridge wall. Back has a a few foxing spots and pencil note.
Tsuchiya Koitsu
Ushigome Kagurazaka.
Date: 1939.
Size: Oban. 17 x 11.375 inches.
Publisher: Doi Hangaten. Doi watermarked paper.
Carver: Harada. Printer: Yokoi. This seal combination indicates an early post-war edition.
Reference: Koitsu catalog TK-DH-056.
Condition: Top back corners have tape residue. Faint toning apparent in margin to former matte edge.
Kawase Hasui
Snow at Kashi (Kashi no Yuki)
Date: 1930s-50s.
Size: Approximately 6 x 4 inches.
Hasui seal lower right.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Reference: Hotei Hp-32.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print attached along its top edge to a blank original card.
Condition: Excellent.
Kawase Hasui
Torii at Miyajima in Snow (Ryobu-torii of Itsukushima Shrine in Inland Sea)
Size: Koban. Approximately 7.5 x 5.125 inches.
Date: 1936. From "Shinto and its Architecture."
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Hasui seal lower left.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Reference: Hotei Hb-s9
Condition: Foxing in sky at right. Pencil note on back.
Kawase Hasui
Lake Shoji
Size: Koban. Approximately 7.875 x 5.25 inches.
Date: 1930s.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Hasui seal lower right.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Reference: Hotei Hp-14.
Condition: Excellent. Pencil note on back.
Kawase Hasui
Arakawa
Date: 1930s-50s. This edition ca. 1957.
Publisher: Likely Doi Eiichi. Publisher's seal lower left.
Artist's seal lower right.
Condition: Excellent.
A rarely seen design.
Kawase Hasui
Springtime Forest
Date: 1930s.
Size: Koban. Approximately 7.875 x 5.25 inches.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Reference: Hotei Hp-18.
Condition: Excellent.
Peerless Mount Fuji
Unsigned. Artist not identified.
Date: 1934.
Size: Oban. Approximately 13.75 x 10 inches.
Origin: Issued as a folded insert to an N.Y.K. Line publication called, "Glimpses of the East". The folds are vertical.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: A faint foxing spot at the upper left.
The composition of this print is reminiscent of the Fuji views of Tsuchiya Koitsu.
Flower arranging is one of the great arts that Japan has managed to take to ever greater heights of refinement over its long history. Here we have a classic example of a kake-hanaire (hanging flower vase) fashioned from bamboo by a lineage of craftsmen that started in 1578 with the first Kuroda Shogen...
Kawase Hasui
Chion Temple, Kyoto (Kyoto Chionin)
Series: Collection of Scenic Views of Japan II, Kansai edition
Date: 1933.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo. Black 6mm Watanabe seal lower left corner, indicating a lifetime edition printed between 1946-1957.
Size: Oban. Approximately 15.5 x 10.25 inches.
Reference: Hotei #322.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Excellent color. Top back margin has one piece of tape from previous hinge...
Shoda Koho
Bridge in Rainy Season
Size: Oban. Approximately 15.5 x 10.0 inches.
Date: 1930s.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Artist's signature and seal at lower left.
Publisher: Nishinomiya Yosaku. Seal at right margin and stamp on verso.
Condition: Excellent. Back has tape residue in two spots.
Tomioka Eisen (1864-1905)
Honmoku
Size: Approximately 18.2 x 11.6 cm. 7.25 x 4.5 inches
Date: ca. 1910.
Publisher: Matsumoto (No. 391).
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Ink dot in sky. Wave in paper where original publisher's tag is attached to the back.
The Matsumoto catalog states, "Honmoku, the old village of the present Yokohama...