Prints from celebrated series attract premium collector interest. Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
From the series New One Hundred Views of Tokyo (Shin Tokyo hyakkei), this 1925 color woodblock print captures the suburban outskirts of the capital in early spring. The Japanese subtitle Soshun kogai places the scene at the moment when winter recedes and the first green begins to appear on bare branches and garden plots. Fukazawa renders this transitional season with a palette that balances the grey-browns of dormant vegetation against pale greens and the soft blue of a late-winter sky. The suburban setting, neither fully urban nor rural, was a landscape particular to the Taisho and early Showa periods, when Tokyo's growth was pushing residential development outward along new rail lines. The series title links this print to Hiroshige's famous One Hundred Views of Edo, claiming equivalent ambition for the modern city.
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.
Early Spring in the Suburbs (Soshun kogai), from the series "New One Hundred Views of Tokyo (Shin Tokyo hyakkei)" was created by Sakuichi Fukazawa (深沢索一) in 1925.
Yes — Early Spring in the Suburbs (Soshun kogai), from the series "New One Hundred Views of Tokyo (Shin Tokyo hyakkei)" is part of the New One Hundred Views of Tokyo (Shin Tokyo hyakkei) series by Sakuichi Fukazawa.
Early Spring in the Suburbs (Soshun kogai), from the series "New One Hundred Views of Tokyo (Shin Tokyo hyakkei)" depicts landscapes, edo & tokyo, and spring, set at Tokyo.
