About This Print and the Series "Seihō's Masterpieces"
This Print
This print titled Spring is Over, or Lamenting the Passing of Spring, was released on April 20, 1937 as part of the first of two sets of sixty-six prints titled Seiho's Masterpieces (a.k.a. Seihō's Masterworks), printed and issued by Unsōdō Publishing. This print is a photographic reproduction using collotype1 of the hanging scroll titled Long Spring Day 遅日 in the collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
遅日
大正7 絹本着色・軸 143.7×51.5
平成15年度 購入 J00748 京都国立近代美術館
大正7 絹本着色・軸 143.7×51.5
平成15年度 購入 J00748 京都国立近代美術館
This print, which is also in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library, was issued as one of three prints in the first 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.
 Date of issue reads Showa 12 (1937), 4th month, 20th day Date of printing reads Showa 12 (1937), 4th month, 19th day click on image to enlarge |  to collotypes. click on image to enlarge |
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 using a roller or brayer 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 | #897 |
| Title | Spring is Over (惜春 sekishun) Across the top: 不許複製 All rights reserved Rightmost column: 竹内栖鳳先生筆 Takeuchi Seiho sensei hitsu with title of print 惜春 to its left. Leftmost column: 芸艸堂 publisher's name Unsōdō, copyright restrictions and addresses of Unsodo's offices in Kyoto and Tokyo. |
| 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 | April 20, 1937 (as printed on colophon for envelope 1 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 | chutanzaku |
| H x W Paper and Image | 14 x 4 3/4 in. (35.6 x 12.1 cm) |
| Collections This Print | New York Public Library, Spencer Collection; Rijksmuseum RP-P-2005-615-12; Los Angeles County Museum of Art M.73.37.382 |
| 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. |
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