Details

The nightlife of Ginza is well underway in this striking print by Koizumi. The street level is ablaze with light, as advertisements overhead entice those out for a night jaunt. Traffic has just arrived at a halt as a couple of resolute pedestrians traverse the intersection. This design celebrates Tokyo’s rise as the new 24-hour city and Koizumi commemorates this spring scene with a million lights, abandoning flowers, holding back the night at a distance.

Connoisseur's Note

There are many states and printing differences in Koizumi’s One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era. By and large, the earlier impressions demonstrate greater care in printing with thicker and more saturated applications of pigment as well as masterful applications of subtle printing techniques involving light and shadow. In this early impression, the atmosphere is particularly well articulated as the black background has several applications of pigment that provides variances in tone to strengthen the atmosphere of fading light.