About This Print
One of a number of posthumous prints created from Yumeji's illustrations by the Tokyo-based publisher Katō Junji. This design was originally made for the below 1923 cover of a musical score of Anton Rubinstein's Wanderer's Night Song, published by Senow Ongaku Shuppansha.
五段目セノオ楽譜 No.316 旅の夜 ［写真］
Night Trip is a most "Munch-looking" work. Is the small figure walking down the path the wife of the elderly gentleman? Is it her "night trip" or will the old gentleman be heading off on his own trip? He looks so tired and forlorn. Yumeji's work of this period is described by Michiaki Kawakita as having taken "on the appearance of what might be called faded nanga: paintings in which there was at times a touch of futurism and at times a bleak loneliness."1
1 Modern Currents in Japanese Art, Michiaki Kawakita, Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1974, p. 121.
About the Series "Yumeji's Masterpieces"
Source: Takehisa Yumeji, Nozomi Naoi, et. al., Brill, 2015, p. 133, p. 135.
"The majority of Yumeji’s woodblock-printed designs were releasedafter his death in 1934. The publisherwho was instrumental in having Yumeji’s work recognized was the Tokyo-based Katō Junji(1885-1961). During the late 1930s andearly 1940s. Katō and his team ofartisan block-cutters and printers at the Katō Print Workshop (Katō PrintWorkshop) (Katō Hanga Kenkyūjō) reusedand recalled numerous famous paintings, music scores and watercolours forseries of prints and postcards."
"The thirty woodblock prints in this setare a selection of the most popular cover designs from the over 270 that theartist produced of Seno music scores. Katō Junji personally compiled the setand it reflects what he believed was representative of Yumeji’s artistic diversity,ranging from the portrayal of beautiful women and landscapes to thisfascination with Western artistic styles."
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #343 |
| Title | Night Trip 夜の旅 - as written in the top of the left margin |
| Series | Yumeji’s Masterpieces 夢二名作集 Yumeji meisakushū |
| Artist | Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934) |
| Signature | unsigned |
| Seal |  |
| Publication Date | originally 1938-1939 |
| Edition | unknown - prints from the series were reprinted an unknown number of times during the life of the publisher |
| Publisher | Katō Junji 加藤潤二 [Katō Hanga Kenkyūjo] copyright owned by Katō Junji Hanken shoyū Katō Junji 版権i所有 加藤潤二 - as printed in left margin |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent - 2 pin holes for drying in left margin, minor toning and soiling; printing smudges in right margin |
| Genre | fukusei hanga |
| Miscellaneous |  Labels attached to print verso |
| Format | ōban |
| H x W Paper | 13 x 9 7/8 in. (33 x 25.1 cm) |
| H x W Image | 12 x 8 5/8 in. (30.5 x 21.9 cm) |
| Collections This Print | |
| Reference Literature |
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