Japanese Woodblock Print, originally published in 1776, this is a Showa era edition published by Watanabe from recarved blocks

SIZE IN INCHES: 9.5 x 12 inches

COMMENTS: There are many variations on the tale of the Heron Maiden in Japan, but most involve a woodsman either sparing or rescuing a heron (in other versions it is a fox or tree). Shortly thereafter, he encounters a beautiful girl, falls in love, and marries her. But the girl insists that the woodsman promise he will not watch her at certain times. He inevitably accidentally or purposefully violates the promise and sees the woman in her true heron identity, and with her identity exposed she must leave him and return to her original form. The woodsman is often left with a child born of his now-vanished supernatural wife.

HARUNOBU SUZUKI (1725-1770) Little is known about Harunobu’s life. His work suggests a strong influence from Okumura Masanobu, an early ukiyo-e artist and publisher in Edo, and Nishikawa Sukenobu, an ukiyo-e painter in Kyoto.

During the Meiwa era (1764-1772), a popular custom in Edo was exchanging picture calendars (egoyomi). These calendars, into which producers put a great deal of creative ingenuity, vied with one another in both design and the richness of their colors, and as a result the techniques of color printing made quantum leaps forward. Just 20 or so years previously, the invention of so-called benizuri-e had made it possible to print ukiyo-e in three or four colors, but already it was becoming possible to print about ten different colors on a single sheet of paper.

It was Harunobu who first applied this new technique to ukiyo-e prints. Such prints were called nishiki-e (brocade pictures) since their beauty was likened to that of elaborate nishiki brocade textiles. These early nishiki-e of Harunobu were the origin of the multicolored ukiyo-e with which we are most likely to be familiar today. The year of their origin can be traced, quite precisely, to 1765. Harunobu produced in his lifetime some 700 nishiki-e, many of them portraits, very popular among the urban population, of delicate, doll-like beautiful women.

Fine, no flaws