Sunday, March 13, 2011

Japanese wood block prints

I have a fondness for Japanese woodblock prints.  I have always been fascinated by how lacking in wood grain they end up being.  They could be linoleum block prints, but that seems so un-Japanese.
Years ago, I took a yoga class in someone's home.  She had this print hanging in her stairwell.  One day it was gone and another print was in it's place.  When I asked what had happened to it, because I loved looking at it, she said she had decided to take it down. And then she gave it to me.  Even though it has lots of foxing and a big fold line down the center, I had it re-framed and have had it in my living room ever since.  I even painted the wall to match the blue.


It turns out that it is a Hiroshige print, though how old,
I have not determined.
  My parents had always had several Japanese wood block prints in their house that I have always coveted.  Now, after all these years, they are in my possession.  They all need serious re-framing but I want to get them looked at by someone that knows something about them first.  This one is definitely a Hiroshige also.



And I'm pretty sure this one is also, but I have no idea what generation these prints are, whether old and original or 19th century re-prints.
As for this print, I still haven't figured out who  the artist is.  But I keep looking.  I thought it might be Hashiguchi but I do not know for sure.






  Here is a photograph I took that reminds me of the first print.
It's from a weekend on the Chesapeake Bay.

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