One of Azechi's many small-format prints, most designed as greeting cards. This small print, however, is the frontispiece to Azechi's 1963 book Japanese Woodblock Prints: Their Techniques and Appreciation. It is a wonderful image of a welcoming mountain man with a cup of coffee in his right hand, waving a greeting with his left, while a bird flies over him and the sun hovers in the sky. Perfect for a frontispiece,
Source: Japanese Woodblock Prints: Their Techniques and Appreciation, Umetaro Azechi,Toto Shuppan Company, Ltd., 1963, p. 10 and p. 58.
1 Sōkichi Kobayashi 小林宗吉 worked for the Yokohama publisher Chikuhōdo 竹芳洞
2 According to Azechi the "sectional method" is best used when the original design does not lend itself to the key-block method which starts with a black-and-white block that "provides general unity". In the sectional method "the block design for each color is taken directly from the original design or original picture."
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1332 |
| Title or Description | Repose |
| Series | frontispiece to Japanese Woodblock Prints: Their Techniques and Appreciation, Umetaro Azechi,Toto Shuppan Company, Ltd., 1963 |
| Artist | Azechi Umetarō (1902-1999) |
| Signature | not signed |
| Seal (of the artist) | "U" stylized seal |
| Publication Date | 1963 |
| Edition | first |
| Publisher | Toto Shuppan Company, Ltd. |
| Carver | the artist |
| Printer | Sōkichi Kobayashi 小林宗吉 worked for the Yokohama publisher 竹芳洞 Chikuhōdo |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent |
| Genre | sosaku hanga (creative print) |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 7 1/2 x 5 3/16 in. (19.1 x 13.2 cm) |
| H x W Image | 7 1/8 x 4 3/4 in. (18.1 x 12.1 cm) |
| Collections This Print | The British Museum 1988,0807,0.1 |
| Reference Literature | Japanese Woodblock Prints: Their Techniques and Appreciation, Umetaro Azechi,Toto Shuppan Company, Ltd., 1963, frontispiece |
 |  |  |  |  |