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

Edition:

Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Source:

Typical Price

Kotondo is best known for bijin-ga, but his complete oeuvre includes actor prints and other figure subjects. His small corpus of only 21 designs ensures that all authenticated period impressions carry collector interest and scarcity premiums.

Later impressions or related works: $500–$2,000
Original period works: $2,000–$8,000
Finest examples: $8,000–$20,000

Description

This oban-format woodblock print by Torii Kotondo, dated 1929, comes from the artist's brief but intensely productive bijin-ga period. Kotondo is one of the most rarefied names in shin-hanga collecting because his entire known output of bijin-ga prints numbers only twenty-one works. As heir to the Torii school, one of the oldest artistic lineages in Japanese art, Kotondo inherited a tradition of portraying kabuki actors and beautiful women that stretched back to the early eighteenth century. His 1929 prints depict modern women of the late Taisho and early Showa periods with extraordinary delicacy: every strand of hair, every fold of fabric, every subtle shift of skin tone was rendered through dozens of separately carved and printed color blocks. The rarity of his bijin-ga makes each one among the most valuable shin-hanga prints on the market.