Key value factors: Edition order (first Watanabe/Doi printing vs. posthumous reprints) is crucial. Snow scenes, night views, and bijin-ga typically command premiums. Publisher seals and artist signatures authenticate first editions.
This print bears a title referencing Arai Yoshimune II, pointing to the lineage naming conventions common among Japanese artists of the Utagawa school tradition. Yoshimune Arai inherited his artistic name through a line of succession stretching back through generations of woodblock print designers. Such naming practices linked artists to established studios and signaled continuity of technique and aesthetic values. The print itself serves as a kind of artistic identity marker, connecting the work of this particular Yoshimune to the broader genealogy of Japanese printmaking. The Utagawa school, one of the most prolific lineages in [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) history, produced hundreds of artists who carried forward and adapted inherited naming conventions well into the twentieth century.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Arai Yoshimune II was created by Yoshimune Arai (荒井芳宗).
Arai Yoshimune II depicts figures and bijin-ga.
