Kishio Koizumi

1893-1945

One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era: The New Diet Building (no. 45)
(Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue: Shin-gijido no kage)

self-carved, self-printed; signed within the composition, Izumi in kanji and KOIZUMI KISIO in block Roman letters, print title on the upper left margin in black, Shin-gijido no kage, followed by the series title, Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue, dated and numbered, hanga kanseiban, dai kyunen nigatsu saku, yonjugo kei (complete print series, 9th year [1934], 2nd month, no. 45), and signed in pencil, Koizumi Kishio, 1934

dai oban yoko-e 11 7/8 by 15 1/2 in., 30.2 by 39.3 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.

Koizumi depicts the New Diet Building, still under construction, as seen from the Sakurada Gate along the moat of the Imperial Palace. Begun in 1920, it was completed two and a half years after this print was published. The composition of the print with the silhouette of the domed building against a sky saturated in color, bears a notable resemblance to a woodblock print by Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) published in 1931 depicting the Victoria Memorial located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. A comparison which Koizumi would likely dispute considering his rather public disdain for shin-hanga in general.

Koizumi expresses admiration bordering on pride (presumably for the building) in his annotated index: Late on a winter’s day the New Diet Building shimmers like a mirage in a golden haze.

References:
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Catalogue of Collections: Prints, 1993, p. 134, no. 1247
James T. Ulak et. al, Tokyo: The Imperial Capital, Woodblock Prints by Koizumi Kishio, 2003, p. 67, pl. 25
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)
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, no. TD1993.69.1.59
(inv. no. 10-5646)

offered as a set

price: (reserved)