Japanese Woodblock Print, 1932, self carved and self printed, dated, signed and sealed in left margin, from an untitled series of scenes of Kyoto

SIZE IN INCHES: inches

ASANO TAKEJI (1900-1999) was one of many cross-over artists who worked in both the shin hanga and sosaku hanga styles. Born in Kyoto in 1900, he graduated from the Kyoto City School of Fine Arts and Crafts in 1919 and the Kyoto Municipal College of Painting in 1923. He first learned Western oil painting and then turned to Japanese-style painting under Tsuchida Bakusen (1887-1936). In 1928, he became interested in woodblock printing through a course offered at Gasendo in Kyoto, by Hiratsuka, one of the founders of the sosaku hanga movement. He was active in the formation of the Kyoto Sosaku-Hangakai (Kyoto Creative Print Society) in 1929 along with Tokuriki Tomikichiro, Asada Benji (1899-1984), Kawai Unosuke (1889-1968), and others. In 1930, he participated with Tokuriki and Asada in creating the series Creative Prints of Twelve Months in New Kyoto published by Uchida Publishing. In the early 1930s he contributed to the magazine Popular Prints published by Kyoto Sosaku-Hangakai. In 1932 he worked on a self-carved and self-printed set of views of the Kyoto area. In 1947, he created the self-carved, self-printed series Noted Views in the Kyoto-Osaka Area. Starting in the 1950s, Asano designed a large number of shin hanga style prints for the Unsodo Publishing company, which continue to be printed to this day.

In the 1960s, Asano created a number of print series of scenic views from various regions of Japan, including Hokkaido, Kyushu, Joshin’etsu, San’in, Seto Inland Sea and Shikoku. Many of the series titles employ the phrase “Here and There” in their titles seen written in kanji. After his return from his extensive tour of Mexico, U.S.A., Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey in 1965 Asano created a ten-print series titled Here and There in the West. His late prints from the 1970s and 1980s are simple, seemingly naive, humorous, and signed T.A. preceded by an apostrophe and the year.

VG, with minor flaws as shown