Details

Ito Shinsui is synonymous with bijin-ga, or images of beautiful women. He is also known for some noteworthy landscapes produced throughout his career. This print is unique from others in Shinsui’s body of work. As a rare, pre-earthquake design executed at the beginning of his career, this piece was created at a time when Shinsui was most at leisure to experiment. The design features a man on top of a thatched roof caught in a moment of self-indulgent contemplation. If one looks closely at the figure, one may notice the man’s appearance looks Western, perhaps even Eastern European. It is interesting to consider that when this print was produced, Western literature, particularly Russian literature and poetry, was quite popular in Japan. Perhaps this design is a polemic against the idealistic and seemingly useless poetics of Russian nihilism.

Connoisseur's Note

This design is only known in trial states where each print displays variations from one another. Of the very few copies extant, one can see variations in color as well as the number of blocks used. This particular impression is rendered in an appealing bright and vivid palette. Though providing a lighter, more vibrant variant, this impression lacks the blocks that would make up the title found in the bottom margin and the signature typically located at the lower right, in the image. It is important to keep in mind that each of these surviving impressions are trials and a finished print was never issued by Watanabe. This design is among the rarest of all Shin Hanga works.