Mishima Shoso

1856-1928

Beauty at a Round Window

hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, signed Shoso, with artist's seal Shoso, red lacquer rollers, ca. 1900-1920

painting 42 1/8 by 10 3/8 in., 107 by 26.5 cm
overall 74 by 15 1/8 in., 188 by 38.5 cm

Mishima Shoso was a Maruyama-Shijo style painter who became a follower of the artist Kikuchi Yosai (1781-1878) along with the great kacho (bird and flower) painter, Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918). He was active in the kuchi-e movement illustrating many books for the publisher Shun'yodo, and fourteen designs for the popular literary magazine Bungei Kurabu.

Shoso assembled a collection of original woodblock prints by the ukiyo-e artist Toshusai Sharaku (active ca. 1794-95) which were destroyed when his house burned down. This was a bitter loss when the prices for Sharaku prints rose exponentially in his lifetime.

References:
Helen Merritt, and Nanako Yamada, Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints: Reflections of Meiji Culture, 2000, pp. 207-208 (artist's biography)

(inv. no. C-3263)

price: $2,200