1893-1945
One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era: Broadcasting Station at Mt. Atago (no. 31)
(Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue: Atago-yama no JOAK)
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, Atago-yama no JOAK, the series title on the right margin, Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue, dated and numbered, hanga kanseiban, dai nananen hachigatsu saku, sanjuichi kei (complete print series, 7th year [1932], 8th month, no. 31), and signed in pencil, Koizumi Kishio, 1932
dai oban tate-e 15 1/2 by 12 in., 39.4 by 30.4 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 first radio broadcast in Japan was transmitted on March 22, 1925, from a station in Shibaura with a mix of classical Japanese and western music and a play which combined kabuki and Shakespeare. The station moved to this location in Atagoyama in July of the same year, and the following year it merged with stations in Osaka and Nagoya to become the Nihon Hoso Kyokai (or NHK).
Koizumi commented on this design in the annotated index: The JOAK broadcasting center has now moved to Marunouchi. They say that Atagoyama was built from the dirt excavated when the castle moat was constructed.
References:
James T. Ulak et. al, Tokyo: The Imperial Capital, Woodblock Prints by Koizumi Kishio, 2003, p. 60, pl. 18
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)
Noemi Raquet and Chris Uhlenbeck, Urban Landscapes and Leisure, Nihon no hanga, 2009, p. 61, no. 46 (re: NHK)
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, no. TD1993.69.1.75
(inv. no. 10-5632)
offered as a set
price: (reserved)