Japanese Woodblock Print, 1911, kuchi-e, frontispiece illustration for Bungei Kurabu Vol. 17, No.1, a very popular literary magazine in Japan during the late Meiji/early Taisho period.

SIZE IN INCHES: chuban, 9 x 12

COMMENTS: One of Keishu's most beautiful kuchi-e scenes. In the kuchi-e a young woman is shown visiting the temple to Marici to pray for good fortune. She is walking past a container for offerings that is surmounted by wooden buckets of water for fire fighting. The second character for the word hono, meaning offering, can be seen on the container. Appropriately, the image of a boar, the zodiac animal for 1911, also adorns the offering container. The arms on the Buddhist swastika turn in the opposite direction from the German. Originally the Oriental emblem was written on the chest of Vishnu and Buddha and meant good fortune.

TAKEUCHI KEISHU (1861-1943) was the son of a daimyo in modern-day Wakayama prefecture. He received no formal schooling, learning basic reading and writing through the private school organized by his father. Though Keishu was later adopted into the family of Eitaku Kano (1814-1891), national chaos prevented the serious study of Kano painting. Faced with a lack of demand for Kano-style artists, Keishu began to decorate export-bound porcelain on the side. Circa 1879, his brother’s suicide brought Keishu back to his familial home and an end to his Kano pursuits. He prospered as a porcelain worker, but when the company urged hurried, subpar work to increase profits, Keishu turned to hanshita, the black-and-white drawings used to carve the key block.

It is unclear what year Keishu turned to woodblock printing and the world of illustration. A self-taught printmaker, Keishu brought a freshness and originality to the genre of kuchi-e (front-pieces for books). By chance circumstance, he became a student of Yoshitoshi: Keishu’s pottery student Toshikuni, a pupil of Yoshitoshi, took Keishu to meet the famed master of the bizarre. Misreading the situation, Yoshitoshi invited Keishu to be his student and gave him the name “Toshisuke.” Keishu wrote, “It was not what I had in mind…but I had no reason to refuse it.” The two artists became friends and Keishu’s name can be found on Yoshitoshi’s memorial. Close friends Koyo Ozaki, the leader Ken’yusha, Keishu illustrated many of kuchi-e for the works of this literary group, as well as children’s books. In 1895, he joined the Hakabunkan publishing company to manage illustration for the company’s magazines. Keisho continued to produce woodblock prints through the Russo-Japanese war, but towards the end of his life he focused on making Saga dolls.

VG, no flaws of note