Japanese Woodblock Print, 1950s, published by Kyoto Hanga-in

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 16 x 11.25 inches

CORMORANT FISHING: This ancient art has been practiced along the Nagara River in Gifu for more than 1,300 years. It has a very long history in Japan and is mentioned in many ancient chronicles. The samurai warlord, Oda Nobunaga took the ukai fisherman under his patronage and created the official position and title of usho (Cormorant Fishing Master). The shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu enjoyed watching ukai when he visited Gifu City and also gave his patronage and protection to the art. He was so fond of the sweet fish that he had it delivered to Edo Castle in modern day Tokyo. The haiku poet, Matsuo Basho famously wrote a haiku about ukai when he visited Gifu to watch the cormorant fishing: “Exciting to see / but soon after, comes sadness / the cormorant boats”.

HIYOSHI MAMORU (1885-?) was a Western-style painter who studied with Okada Saburosuke (1869-1939). Immediately after graduating from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1909, the year before Japan formally annexed Korea, he took up teaching duties in colonial Korea, one of a number of Japanese artists who taught there. He served at the Kyongsong (Gyeongseong) Middle School (a school for Japanese students that later became the Seoul Middle and High School) beginning in 1909 and stayed in Korea until 1945. In 1941 he participated in the founding of the pro-Japanese Kyungsung Artists' Association, the first large-scale organization organized for artists' pro-Japanese activities. His brief memoir of his life in Korea provides information on the Japanese artists who went to Korea and what they did during the colonial period. In the early 1950s he began designing woodblock prints for the publisher Kyoto Hanga-in. Most of these works consist of scenes of Korean customs and scenic places, idyllic remembrances of Mamoru's many years living there. Typically, they are signed M. Hiyoshi with a stylized seal of Mamoru], as shown below.

VG no flaws of note