Japanese Woodblock Print, 1925, 1st edition, signed at upper left, Tsunetomi hitsu, with artist's seal

SIZE IN INCHES: dia-oban, 12.75 x 19 inches

PROVENANCE: From the Tsunetomi family.

COMMENTS: The heron maiden peers out from her sheltering robes, her face a study in sensitivity and subtlety. Large snowflakes have been hand-applied with gofun, in addition to a background of silver mica that hosts a stunning woodgrain that adequately captures a strong atmospheric quality. Considered by many collectors to be the most desirable of Shin Hanga bijin-ga (beautiful women) prints.

KITANO TSUNETOMI (1880-1947) was born in Kanazawa, he moved to Osaka as a young man where he would establish himself as a leading master of bijin-ga, and in his own lifetime, earn recognition as the first Nihonga artist from Osaka. He began his artistic career from 1892 to 1895 as an apprentice at woodblock printing shops in his hometown. In 1897 he worked for the carver Nakayama Komataro, before moving to Osaka in 1898 to study with the painter and print designer Ineno Toshitsune (1858-1907), a former pupil of Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908). In 1899 he began publishing illustrations in the monthly Shin-Nihon ('New Japan') while he also began studying yoga (Western-style painting).

During the first two decades of the new century, Tsunetomi emerged as a leading bijin-ga painter and illustrator. His early work was particularly distinctive; while many artists of this period were portraying women as relatively sweet and innocent, Tsunetomi's beauties were infused with a compelling combination of mysterious sexuality and realistic vulnerabilities. He began self-publishing prints in 1918, starting with the four oban bijin-ga in the Seasons of the Pleasure Quarters set. A denizen of the floating world himself, Tsunetomi was an ardent fan of kabuki. This circa 1925 print, depicting a famous kabuki role, The Heron Maiden, is his grandest and most famous bijin-ga.

VG, with soils as shown, margins partially trimmed (printer/carver information in bottom margin has been trimmed off, lightly backed