1893-1945
One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era: Fukagawa Garbage Treatment Facility (no. 39)
(Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue: Tokyo fukagawa jinkai shorikojo)
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, Tokyo fukagawa jinkai shorikojo, the series title on the right margin, Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue, dated and numbered, hanga kanseiban, dai hachinen rokugatsu saku, sanjukyu kei (complete print series, 8th year [1933], 6th month, no. 39), and signed in pencil, Koizumi Kishio, 1933
dai oban tate-e 15 5/8 by 12 in., 39.7 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.
In the 1940 annotated index for the series, Koizumi recounts the impetus for this design: I had heard that foul smelling smoke was being emitted from this facility and went to see for myself. Actually, the chimneys are quite beautiful.
References:
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Catalogue of Collections: Prints, 1993, p. 134, no. 1245
James T. Ulak et. al, Tokyo: The Imperial Capital, Woodblock Prints by Koizumi Kishio, 2003, p. 64, pl. 22
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)
Marije Jansen, Japan Modern: Japanese Prints from the Elise Wessels Collection, 2016, no. 88, cat. p. 222
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, no. TD1993.69.1.65
(inv. no. 10-5640)
offered as a set
price: (reserved)