Kishio Koizumi

1893-1945

One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era: Tokyo Municipal Hall (no. 76)
(Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue: Tokyo-shiyakusho)

self-carved, self-printed; signed within the composition, Izumi in kanji and KOIZUMI KISIO in block Roman letters, print title on the upper left margin in black, Tokyo-shiyakusho, the series title on the right margin, Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue, dated and numbered, hanga kanseiban, dai juichinen sangatsu saku, nanajuroku kei (complete print series, 11th year [1936], 3rd month, no. 76), and signed in pencil, Koizumi Kishio, 1936

dai oban tate-e 15 3/8 by 11 3/4 in., 39.2 by 30 cm

In 1928 Kishio Koizumi released the first print of this ambitious series of 100 designs. Entirely self-carved and self-printed, the series would take nine years to complete during a period of rapid expanding and rebuilding of Tokyo and tumultuous political and social change in Japan. Koizumi's views of Tokyo reflected an interest in the modernization of the city while at the same time a sense of nostalgic pride in traditional Japan.

Koizumi draws comparison in the 1940 annotated index: This has the feel of a print by Hiroshige III in which he depicted snow on a Western-style building at dusk.

References:
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Catalogue of Collections: Prints, 1993, p. 136, no. 1264
James T. Ulak, Tokyo Modern-II, Koizumi Kishio's 1940 Annotations on "100 Views of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era," Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visualizing Cultures (visualizingcultures.mit.edu), 2009 (Koizumi translation)
(inv. no. 10-5677)

offered as a set

price: (reserved)