Shotei produced a wide range of subjects throughout his career under publishers Watanabe and Daikokuya. Signed, sealed lifetime editions consistently outperform unsigned export-market copies.
Okabe was one of the fifty-three stations of the Tokaido highway, a small post town in Shizuoka Prefecture where travelers rested between Fuji and the coast. This circa 1936 mitsugiriban (small format) print renders the town or its immediate surroundings with the intimate scale appropriate to both the format and the subject — a minor stopping point rather than a major destination, interesting precisely because of its ordinariness. Shotei's Tokaido scenes documented the living highway culture that had persisted largely unchanged for three centuries.
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.
Okabe was created by Takahashi Shotei (高橋松亭) in c. 1936.
Okabe was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (c. 1936).
Okabe depicts landscapes, travel scenes, and village scenes.
