Japanese Woodblock Print, 1910s, this c 1930 published by Nishinomiya

SIZE IN INCHES: chuban, 8 x 10.675

PROVENANCE: From the Robert O. Muller estate.

COMMENTS: The "Night Scene" series of prints published during the early 1900's by Hasegawa/Nishinomiya of Tokyo. There are 21 chuban-sized prints included in the series which is indicative of the early transitional style of shin-hanga, the dominant movement in Japanese print making during the first half of the twentieth century. The artists who created designs for the series were: Koho Shoda, Eijiro Kobayashi, Yoshimune Arai, Kiyochika Kobayashi, and Gyosui Suzuki.

The series is comprised of prints showing evening and night views of popular Japanese landscape tableaux often under a full moon. Variant editions employing sepia and brown tones are also known, but the series is printed primarily in blues and blacks with highlights of yellow, red and pink.

KOHO SHODA (1871-1946) was a Japanese artist associated with the shin-hanga ("New Prints") art movement in Japan during the early 20th century. This movement was influenced by European Impressionism and its imagery focused on landscapes, women, and nature.

SHODA KOHO (1871-1946) was a Japanese woodblock print artist working with the Hasegawa Print Co. (later called Nishinomiya Print Co). He primarily produced landscape prints in the shin-hanga style. Little is known about his personal life, and even the dates of his birth and death are not certain. However, his work can be dated to the decade of 1910 to 1920. His work was largely unknow until the early 2000's when after the death of Robert O. Muller (the most important American Japanese Woodblock print collector and purveyor of the 20th century) a large number of Koho's print designs were discovered in Muller's estate.

Fine, no flaws