Japanese Woodblock Prints
Japanese Woodblock Prints
The Sokolov Collection
Various | Five woodblock prints | Showa period, 20th century
No reserve
Lot Closed
March 23, 03:32 PM GMT
Estimate
1,000 - 1,500 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Sokolov Collection
Masaharu Aoyama (1893-1969)
Asano Takeji (1900-1998)
Kobayashi Kiyochika (Japanese, 1847–1915)
Five woodblock prints
Showa period, 20th century
each a woodblock print, and comprising:
- Ode to the North Country (Kitaguni reisan), signed M. Aoyama in Roman script, with artist's seal Ao, circa 1950s, edition number 58/100
- Fishing Creels, signed M. Aoyama in Roman script, with artist's seal Ao, circa 1950s-60s, edition number 33/100
- Evening View at the Port (Kako yukei), from the series New Views of Osaka (Shin Osaka fukei no uchi), signed Takeji ga to (drawn and carved by Takeji) and Takeji suri (printed by Takeji), with artist's seal Asano, dated Showa nanen hachigatsu nijusan nichi (23 August 1932)
- Tojinbo, signed Takeji hitsu (Brush of Takeji) and sealed, published by Unsodo, dated Showa nijuyonen saku (made in 1949)
- Umewaka Shrine (Umewaka jinja), signed Kobayashi Kiyochika, titled to the bottom margin as above, circa 1877
Vertical and horizontal oban:
30 x 43.5 cm., 11⅞ x 17⅛ in. (the first)
44 x 30 cm., 17 x 11⅞ in. (the second)
25.5 x 36 cm., 10 x 14⅛ in. (the third)
39 x 25.5 cm., 15⅜ x 10 in. (the fourth)
22.5 x 33.3 cm., 8⅞ x 13⅛ in. (the fifth)
Aoyama Masaharu (1893-1969)
Masaharu Aoyama was a printmaker working in the sosaku-hanga (“creative prints”) movement, which began in the early 20th century and advocated self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed works. Stylistically, sosaku-hanga prints move away from traditional Japanese aesthetics typified by ukiyo-e of the Edo and early Meiji periods and tend to lean towards abstract expressionist compositions.
Aoyama attended the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and went on to produce self-printed works, although some were also printed with the Ishiyama publishing house.
Asano Takeji (1900-1999)
Born in Kyoto, Takeji Asano attended the Kyoto City School of Fine Arts and Crafts, followed by the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting. He became a founding member of the Kyoto Sosaku-Hangakai in 1929 and he contributed to many different collaborative and solo series. He was one of a number of artists who worked in both the shin-hanga (“new prints”) and sosaku-hanga (“creative prints”) movements. In the early-30s he worked on a self-carved and self-printed set of views of the Kyoto area and in 1947, a series Noted Views in the Kyoto-Osaka Area (Kinki meisho fukei). Starting in the 1950s, Asano designed a large number of shin-hanga-style prints for the Unsodo publishing company.