About This Print and the Series Seihō's Masterpieces

This print titled Even Tide or Calm Water was released on August 25, 1937 as part of the first of two sets of sixty-six prints titled Seihō's Masterpieces (a.k.a. Seihō's Masterworks) printed and issued by Unsōdō Publishing. 

This print, which is also in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, was issued as one of three prints in the third envelope of set one.  The colophon, shown below, pasted to the envelope, gives the dates of printing and issue, the titles of the prints, copyright information, and information about the publisher.

A combination of print processes (see further discussion see the article "Takeuchi Seihō: Seihō's Masterpieces.") were used for this series and this particular print is a collotype¹ as can be seen by the reticulated pattern in the below detail, an artifact of the collotype process. 

The Series "Seihō's Masterpieces"

For images of all sixty-six prints and a description of the series, please go to the article "Takeuchi Seihō: Seihō's Masterpieces."
¹ Collotype printing had its first commercial use in Japan in 1889.  The collotype photographic process was versatile and could produce high quality images on different types of paper. Collotype prints can be readily identified by the presence of image reticulation, a product of the finely cracked gelatin plate used to print the image, which can be seen under magnification. The size of the reticulation varies from print to print, but cannot be seen by the naked eye. The image can be a variety of colors.  Prints made from collotype plates can be either hand printed or printed using a press. For more information on the process open the attachment link at the bottom of this page titled "The Collotype Process".

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#876
Title	Even Tide 平潮 To the left is the label attached to the rear of the sheet the print is tipped to.  It reads:  Across the top: 不許複製 All rights reserved Rightmost column: 竹内栖鳳先生筆 Takeuchi Seihō sensei hitsu with title of print 平潮 to its left.  Leftmost column: 芸艸堂 publisher's name Unsōdō, copyright restrictions and addresses of Unsōdō's offices
Series	Seihō's Masterpieces (栖鳳逸品集 Seihō's ippin shū) (set 1)
Artist	Takeuchi Seihō (1864-1942)
Signature	Seihō
Seal	unread seal as shown above
Publication Date	August 25, 1937 (as printed on colophon for envelope 3 containing the print)
Edition	original and only edition
Publisher	Unsōdō Publishing
Printer	Shinmi Saburō 新味 三朗
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	excellent
Miscellaneous	removed from its original heavy paper backing/matting, but still with original mat.
Genre	nihonga (also classed as e-hon, as the series prints exist as bound volumes)
Format	non-standard
H x W Paper	10 5/8 x 14 1/4 in. (27 x 36.2 cm )
Collections This Print	New York Public Library, Spencer Collection; Rijksmuseum RP-P-2005-615-31
Reference Literature	The Artist and the Book in Japan, Roger S. Keyes, The University of Washington Press with New York Public Library, December 2006, p. 252-253; The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols., Jack Hillier, Sotheby's Publications, 1987, p. 992-993.