TOSHIKATA Mizuno. (1866-1908)

Jakko-in Temple. 1901.

Category

Japanese | 20th Century

Publisher

published in Bungei Kurabu.

kuchi-e woodblock, 30.0 cm × 24.0 cm

Finely printed with shômenzuri on the hair and silver pigments. Very good colour. The usual 'magazine' folds with kuchi-e. Very good condition. Kuchi-e are still one of the most undervalued areas of fine Japanese woodblock printing.

Empress Tokuko is depicted in Heian style, her long hair cascading down the back of her twelve layered kimono. She became a nun after her young son Antoku died in the battle of Dannoura. Toshikata creates a strong duality with the sumptuous court robes of Tokuko in the foreground and the background view of her ascetic life with two other nuns at the Jakko-in hermitage. This kuchi-e appeared  in the literary magazine 'Bungei kurabu' as a frontispiece to the novel 'Jakkoin' by Miyake Seiken. Red 'Toshikata' seal.

Reference; Plate 3.6, Pg.44 'Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints: Reflections of Meiji Culture', Helen Merritt ISBN 0-8248-2073-8

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