Snow (Yuki) — 雪

Date:: 1929
Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo

Edition:

Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Source:

Typical Price

This is among Kotondo's most celebrated compositions. Kotondo created only 21 bijin-ga designs (1927–1933), and the original woodblocks were destroyed before WWII, making any original period impression extraordinarily rare. "Kamisuki (Hair Combing)" set the artist record at $72,500 at Christie's New York in 2019.

Later impressions or Ishu Kanko Kai reprints: $1,000–$3,500
Original 1930s editions, good condition: $8,000–$25,000
Finest original impressions of top designs: $25,000–$72,500

Description

A woman stands in falling snow, the flakes rendered against a cool bokashi background in the deep blues and greys of winter. The 1929 Snow print (Yuki) is one of Kotondo's most admired subjects, the delicate technical challenge of rendering snowfall through woodblock printing — fine white lines against a dark ground, diagonal registration, atmospheric gradation — fully realized. The woman's posture within the snowfall is composed and unhurried, winter received as an element of life rather than an inconvenience.