Ohara Koson

Shoson, Hoson, 1877-1945

Two Carp

signed Shoson with artist's seal Shoson, publisher's seal Hanken shoyu Watanabe Shozaburo (copyright Watanabe Shozaburo), ca. 1926

dai oban tate-e 15 3/8 by 10 1/4 in., 39.2 by 26 cm

According to the 1930 Toledo catalogue this print was issued in an edition of 500 impressions in 1926.

Ohara Koson was one of the most important and prolific kacho-ga (bird and flower) woodblock prints artists of the early 20th century shin-hanga (new print) movement. He began publishing prints with Watanabe Shozaburo after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, around 1926. Before the earthquake, Koson published kacho-ga with Kokkeido (Akiyama Buemon) in Nihonbashi; Daikokuya (Matsuki Heikichi) in Ryogokubashi; and Nishinomiya Yosaku; always using thego (artist's name) Koson. When he began publishing with Watanabe Shozaburo, he adopted the go, Shoson.

References:
Dorothy Blair, Modern Japanese Prints, Toledo Museum of Art, 1930, no. 178
Amy Reigle Newland, et. al, Crows, Cranes & Camellias; The Natural World of Ohara Koson 177-1945, 2001, p. 161, no. 169
Carolyn M. Putney, Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, Toledo Museum of Art, 2013, p. 217, no. 184

(inv. no. 10-5585)

price: $2,400