Kishio Koizumi

1893-1945

One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era: Entrance of the Imperial Hotel (no. 83)
(Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue: Teikoku hoteru no genkan)

self-carved, self-printed; signed and dated within the composition, Izumi, KOIZUMI KISIO, 1936, print title on the upper left margin in black, Teikoku hoteru no genkan, the series title on the right margin, Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue, dated and numbered, hanga kanseiban, dai juichinen jugatsu saku, hachijusan kei (complete print series, 11th year [1936], 10th month, no. 83), and signed in pencil, Koizumi Kishio, 1936

dai oban yoko-e 11 3/4 by 15 3/8 in., 29.9 by 39.2 cm

In 1928 Kishio Koizumi released the first print of this ambitious series of 100 designs. Entirely self-carved and self-printed, the series would take nine years to complete during a period of rapid expanding and rebuilding of Tokyo and tumultuous political and social change in Japan. Koizumi's views of Tokyo reflected an interest in the modernization of the city while at the same time a sense of nostalgic pride in traditional Japan.

The Imperial Hotel was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1887-1957), an avid collector (and dealer) of Japanese woodblock prints, who was recommended by a fellow collector, Frederick W. Gookin (1853-1936) to Aisaku Hayashi, the General Manager of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo (who previously worked at the Yamanaka & Co. gallery in New York). Negotiations on the commission started as early as 1912, design work was underway by 1916, construction began in 1919 and was completed in 1923. The symmetrical building was designed based on the hotel's logo featuring an 'H' shape and constructed of concrete and oya (grey-green lava stone) with an innovative floating foundation. It officially opened on September 1, 1923, when at 2 minutes to noon the Great Kanto Earthquake struck, laying waste to huge portions of Yokohama and Tokyo. Remarkably, the hotel suffered minimal damage thanks to Wright's ingenious engineering. Although it survived that disaster as well as allied bombings, it could not survive economic progress; the Imperial was demolished in 1967 to make way for a skyscraper.

Koizumi describes the stylish hotel in his 1940 annotated index: This hotel serves an international and cosmopolitan clientele as well as being a social club for the elite.

References:
James T. Ulak et. al, Tokyo: The Imperial Capital, Woodblock Prints by Koizumi Kishio, 2003, p. 78, pl. 36
James T. Ulak, Tokyo Modern-II, Koizumi Kishio's 1940 Annotations on "100 Views of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era," Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visualizing Cultures (visualizingcultures.mit.edu), 2009 (Koizumi translation)
British Museum, registration no. 1987,0316,0.526
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, no. TD1993.69.1.16
(inv. no. 10-5684)

offered as a set

price: (reserved)