r/ukiyoe

Hi. I came across this listing with 35 out of 53 prints from Hitoshige’s fifty-three stations of the Tokaido series. In the listing it is stated that they are older reprints. They look to be in pretty good condition, and i got the seller to send me a photo of the back of one of the prints. I was also a little surprised that there is both japanese and english descriptions on the prints. The price for the 35 prints are also way lower than expected, only 80$ for all 35 prints it seems.

Would very much appreciate some opinions on this. Its not that much money, so if it is lets say metalprint rather than woodblock then its not that big of a deal.

Geki Magohachi from Yoshitoshi's Kaidai Hyaku Sensō ("Selection of One Hundred Warriors"), published in 1868 when he was just 29.

What strikes me every time is how radically different this is from anything else being produced in woodblock printing at the time. Standard musha-e gave you full-figure warriors in heroic poses with common Utagawa school figures. Yoshitoshi threw that out — here you get a brutal close-up, teeth bared, a blood-tipped blade thrusting up through clouds of black gunsmoke, enemy spears slashing across the body. It feels more like a war photograph than a woodblock print.

Geki Magohachi was a 16th-century Sengoku warrior — he never saw a rifle. But Yoshitoshi had just witnessed the Battle of Ueno during the Boshin War, and the historical names were a device to get past Meiji censorship. Everyone buying these prints knew what they were really looking at.

Only 65 of the planned 100 designs were completed before censorship and Yoshitoshi's breakdown halted production. Even incomplete, this series established the dramatic cropping, psychological intensity, and Western-influenced perspective that would define his career and eventually make him the most influential printmaker of the Meiji era.

Hi all, I found this artwork at a flea market a while back and was looking to see if anyone might know the artist or anything about this piece.

And spent a lot of time in a little shop in Ginza, Tokyo.

I picked up two different prints. Knew nothing (still don’t) but love the images. Great colors and lots of details.

However I only take them out once every year or three which seems silly. but they also seem delicate and not sure if I want to be handling them much.

Are these something I could frame or is that kind of exposure after all this time some kind of sin. I don’t really care about the value and am unlikely to ever sell these. but I do believe in respecting old things.

Note the shopkeepers provided all the info shown with the artist, dates, history.

Algorithm is getting good at showing me the right groups. I collect military history and ended up with a few woodblock prints.

Japan taxes its citizens at an ungodly level to fund the Russo-Japanese war. They would pass out posters glorifying the conflict as pro- propaganda.

I have a few others I got at auction years ago. Need to take some pictures.

I noticed the white pigments on this print disintegrating and falling off.
Since Watanabe didn’t use traditional pigments and wrinkled paper, it is kind of expected, but is there a way to slow down this process? Asking Watanabe collectors specifically

I found this framed print earlier today (east TN) and I'm curious about it. The art is raised in sections which I assume is related to how it's printed from the medium. Many versions of this print have signatures and marks along the outer edge and a different color scheme in the top right hand corner box . Also when held up to the light it looks like there are distinguishing fade lines hidden on the paper (not sure if that means anything).

I'd appreciate anybody's thoughts or input.

I found an antique Hokusai print for sale at my local antique store, and the shopkeeper and I were unsure if it was an original Hokusai or a reprint. It seems to check all of the boxes for “original” that I read about online (a bleed-out of the image on the reverse that matches what would be expected of a woodblock print, minimal margin, washi paper, no pixelation when viewed with a magnifying glass) but it lacks the cartouche with the title. According to the shopkeeper, the only other cartouche-less edition of that piece that he could find while researching it was one sold at Sotheby’s, and that was a first state print.

The piece is in what the shopkeeper presumes to be the original Western frame, and there’s a newspaper dating from the 1880s in the frame serving as extra “protection”, so we think it’s at least that old. There is a small red circular stamp on the bottom left of the backside of the print. The shopkeeper obtained it from a late gentleman who had a large collection of East Asian, Indian, and Persian art, so the shopkeeper feels like it’s an authentic piece at least (ie it’s not a modern forgery).

When the shopkeeper put his photos of it into AI, it said that it was possibly a reprint from the Meiji era, but I haven’t seen any known reprints of first state (cartouche-less) editions on the ukiyo-e compendia websites. I’m inclined to think it’s a reprint but the lack of the cartouche is throwing me off.

I only have the two attached pictures of it, but the shopkeeper has more (especially of the backside). I did the best I could to minimize the glare. The piece is quite faded regardless of its authenticity.

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I've always loved the aesthetic of Ukiyo-e. I've wanted to make my own print for ages but don't trust my carving skills. The process of decomposing an image into composite layers and then creating the print step by step is fascinating to me, though.

I also think the Eki Stamp / Book phenom in Japan is deserving of worldwide imitation. I wish we had more of that here in Canada (where I'm from).

So I built this app (https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/hanko/id6765799657) that lets you take a photo of your choosing, break it down into the component (stylized) layers and then lets you create the stamp of your choice from the layers (colours, ordering, etc).

But my question to all of you is - what to call this? it's not strictly 'Hanko', I know (which is more a "signature" stamp) but nor is it really Ukiyo-e. Is there another name for this 'Custom Made Stamp' you could suggest?

Really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance.

1st image: Kuniyoshi 1826-1827 - Higuchi no Jiro Kanemitsu Subjugating a Giant Monkey in the Kiso Mountains

2nd image: Yoshitsuya 1858 - Monster Ape In the Kiso Mountains

3rd image: Yoshikazu 1853 - Shinten-o Vanquishes a White Monkey on Kiso Mountain

I was mostly intrigued by the first ukiyo-e after buying a book on masterpieces centred around heroes. I've found a few pieces centred around heroes from The Tale of the Heike hunting a giant monkey in the Kiso mountains, but I haven't been able to find the story behind them.

From what I've found, Kuniyoshi created the first depiction of the hunt, and other artists followed from there. However, I haven't seen a story anything like what it depicts, but all of the art is created after the story of Iwami Jutaro took off so I wonder if it's just a mash up of that and The Tale of the Heike.

Does anyone know anything more about these pieces, or anything about the story behind them?

Stumbled upon this original woodblock print by Un’ichi Hiratsuka during a recent trip to a Japanese second-hand market. Even though it's unnumbered and the seal is missing, the artist's pencil signature on the back.