Japanese Woodblock Print, 1949, this later edition published by Shoichiro Watanabe

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 15.5 x 10.5inches

ITO TAKASHI (1894-1982) was born in Gama, a suburb of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture in November 1894. He was one of the stable of landscape artists who designed prints for the shin hanga publisher Watanabe. Like several other print artists of this period, including Ito Shinsui (1898-1972) and Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), Takashi studied painting under Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1973). He graduated from the Kyoto Koto Kogei (Higher Polytechnic) School of Designing where he studied Yoga (Western-style painting) with Totori Eiki (1873-1943), the Koto Kogei Gakko (Kyoto Higher Technical Art School) where he studied Nihonga (traditional Japanese-style painting) with Takeuchi Seiho and the Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts where he studied Nihonga with painter Yuki Somei (1875-1957). Takashi primarily worked as a painter and started making color woodblock prints in 1922, which he did intermittently throughout the rest of his career. He exhibited paintings at the Teiten. He designed about 85 woodblock prints from the early 1920s through 1965.

Many of Takashi’s prints are idealistic images that emphasize the beauty of the unspoiled Japanese landscape. He enjoyed depicting dramatic seasonal and weather phenomena and often used bright, almost surreal colors to emphasize these changes. Occasionally people are part of his designs, but they are always incidental, solitary figures. A typical print, Takegawa River at Dawn, shows man living in harmony with nature. Takashi's prints evoke the Japan of old and represent the height of romantic shin hanga landscapes.

Fine, no flaws