Description
Fascinating large vertical format woodblock print depicting the courtesan Koharu (小春), the heroine of the play “The Love Suicides at Amijima” (心中天の網島), and made in 1922 by the artist Kikuchi Keigetsu (菊池契月) for the “Woodblock Print Supplements to the Complete Works of Chikamatsu” (大近松全集付録木版), a series of eighteen prints created to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the death of the famous writer and dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon (近松門左衛門).
The work, enriched with details in silver pigments, was made in collaboration with the engraver Yamagishi Kazue (山岸主計) and the printer Nishimura Kumakichi (西村熊吉) and was produced by the Complete Work of Chikamatsu Publishing Association (大近松全集刊行会).
The precious woodcut on Japanese washi paper (和紙), despite some just signs of aging, is in very good general condition.
