$500–$5,000. Common landscapes: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Ito Takashi's prints published by Doi Hangaten are the most sought after. Night scenes and snow views command premiums.
Mount Myoko, a 2,454-meter stratovolcano in Niigata Prefecture, is shown at dawn in this oban woodblock print. Ito Takashi captures the brief interval when early light strikes the upper slopes while the lowlands remain in shadow, using layered color printing to differentiate the warm tones of sunlit snow from the cool blues of shaded terrain. Myoko-san, one of the Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan, offered Ito a subject with both dramatic elevation and complex surface texture, its volcanic contours catching light in ways that differ markedly from the smooth cone of Fuji. The dawn setting required Ito to work with a compressed and rapidly shifting color palette, translating the ephemeral warmth of first light into the fixed pigments of the woodblock print. The result freezes a moment that in reality lasts only minutes.
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.
Mt Myoko-zan at dawn was created by Ito Takashi (伊東孝).
Mt Myoko-zan at dawn depicts landscapes, snow scenes, and night scenes.
