Ishikawa Toraji

1875-1964

Mount Aso
(Asoyama)

color woodblock print, signed Ishikawa with artist's seal Tora, the title in the upper left margin Asoyama, the carver's seal in the lower left margin, Yamagishi Kazue to, and printer's seal Urushibara Eijiro suri, with artist's watermark, Ishikawa Toraji, published by the artist ca. 1934, lifetime edition

dai oban yoko-e 14 5/8 by 19 in., 37 by 48.3 cm

This is one of a trio of mountainscape prints produced under Toraji's direction in 1934. It is based on an oil painting Toraji made in 1933 called 'View of Mt. Aso from Daikanha.' The carver, Yamagishi Kazue (1891-1984), carved the blocks for most of the print by Paul Jacoulet (1902-1960) and worked with other Japanese artists such as Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1972), Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934), and Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) in addition to producing print designs in his own right. The printer, Urushibara Eijiro (1882-1943), is the brother of Urushibara Yoshijiro (Mokuchu, 1889-1953), the Japanese ex-pat printmaker who taught woodblock carving and printing to British and French printmakers between the two World Wars and who worked with European artists such as Frank Brangywn (1867-1956) to turn their designs into woodblock prints. Although later, post-WWII printings of some of Toraji's mountainscapes are known to exist, they bear the name of a different printer, as Urushibara Eijiro died in 1943.

References:
Helen Merritt, Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, 1992, p. 44-45
Museum of Art Kochi, Ishikawa Toraji, 2002, pp. 62, 177
(inv. no. 10-5138)

price: $2,500