Key value factors: Edition order (first Watanabe/Doi printing vs. posthumous reprints) is crucial. Snow scenes, night views, and bijin-ga typically command premiums. Publisher seals and artist signatures authenticate first editions.
An unidentified woodblock print by Ishiwata Koitsu, executed in his characteristic atmospheric manner. The shin-hanga movement to which Ishiwata belonged sought to revitalize the Japanese woodblock print tradition by incorporating Western-influenced color sensitivity and atmospheric naturalism into the traditional collaborative production system. This print, whatever its subject, reflects those aesthetic values in its careful tonal gradations and its commitment to capturing the transient atmospheric effects — the quality of light at a particular hour, the mood of a specific season — that made the New Prints so appealing to collectors.
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.
Untitled (ishiwata-koitsu) was created by Ishiwata Koitsu (石渡光逸).
Untitled (ishiwata-koitsu) depicts landscapes, night scenes, and animals.
