$500–$4,000. Common subjects: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: As an early sosaku-hanga pioneer, Kawakami's prints have historical significance. His distinctive graphic style is collected.
"Drawing — European Barber" presents the Western barber — with his straight razor, apron, and Western-style barber's chair — as a figure of cultural transformation, the man whose tools and techniques reshaped Japanese men's heads during the Meiji period. Western-style barbershops, which offered the short haircuts and clean shaves demanded by Meiji modernity, replaced traditional Japanese hairdressers as the instruments of cultural modernization made visible on every face. Kawakami's drawing style gives the European barber an appropriately direct, illustrative quality.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Drawing - European Barber was created by Sumio Kawakami (川上澄生).
Drawing - European Barber depicts figures, craftspeople, and daily life.
