ENCYU (Hot Afternoon)
Typical Price
$1,000–$6,000. Common subjects: $1,000–$2,000. Key value factors: Nishijima's nostalgic Japanese village scenes appeal to collectors worldwide. Limited editions maintain value well.
Description
"Encyu" — the heat of a high summer afternoon — conveys the torpor and brilliance of Japanese summer at its most intense. Nishijima renders a traditional street or architectural scene under the crushing overhead light of midday in August: the harsh shadows, the bleached surfaces, the stillness of a scene from which all activity has retreated to shade or interior. His ability to convey intense heat through compositional and color choices — the simplified values of noon light, the absence of human presence — gives this landscape a quality of almost painterly concentration.
More Prints by Katsuyuki Nishijima
More Urban Scenes Prints
A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Kiyonaga's Pipe (Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Kiyonaga no kiseru)
Woodblock print
View of Kabuki Theater from Matsuya (Ginza Matsuya yori Kabukiza), no. 3 from the series "Pictures of Ginza, First Series (Gashu Ginza dai isshu)"
1928
Color lithograph
Distant View of Mitsukoshi Movie Theater in Shinjuku from the Sixth Floor of Hoteiya (Hoteiya rokkai kara Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Musashi no kan enbo zu), no. 1 from the series "Scenery of Shinjuku (Gashu Shinjuku fukei)"
1930
Color lithograph
Spring Dusk at the Tōshō Shrine in Ueno
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Frequently Asked Questions
ENCYU (Hot Afternoon) was created by Katsuyuki Nishijima (西島勝之).
ENCYU (Hot Afternoon) depicts urban scenes, architecture, and summer.