$200–$1,500. Common prints: $200–$500. Key value factors: Ebina's prints are modestly priced and accessible to beginning collectors of Japanese creative prints.
"Early Bracken" (Sawarabi) corresponds to one of the Uji chapters of The Tale of Genji, in which the young heroes Niou and Kaoru pay a ceremonial New Year's visit to the Uji villa to pay respects to the late Prince Hachi's memory. The bracken ferns of early spring — gathering them was associated with the season's first foraging — give the chapter its melancholy beauty: new life emerging from the place of death and loss. Ebina's print captures the elegiac atmosphere of the Uji chapters, where Genji's world has contracted to grief and longing.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Chapter 16- Early Bracken - 早蕨 was created by Ebina Masao (海老名正夫).
Chapter 16- Early Bracken - 早蕨 depicts landscapes, spring, and trees.
