MIGITA TOSHIHIDE · SATSUKI

Artist: Migita Toshihide 右田年英 (1863–1925), pupil of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Series: Bijin jūni sugata 美人十二姿 (Twelve Portraits of Beauties) Title: Satsuki 皐月 (The Fifth Month) Format: Ōban tate-e, approx. 36 × 24 cm (sheet with margins) Technique: Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper Date: 1901 (Meiji 34), date in the margin colophon Publisher: Akiyama Buemon 秋山武右衛門 (Kokkeidō), publisher's seal in the lower left margin Signature: 年英 (Toshihide), with the artist's seal Shisuitei CONDITION Excellent colors, good impression. The paper is clean, firm and subtle. Please check the images! About the print Satsuki is the fifth month of the old lunar calendar, which corresponds roughly to June in today's calendar. The name is usually linked to sanae, the young rice seedlings planted out at this time of year. The month was also known for the early summer rains (samidare) and for the Boys' Festival (Tango no sekku) on its fifth day. It marks the turn from spring into summer. Bijin jūni sugata is Toshihide's best-known series of beautiful women. Akiyama Buemon published it in 1901, with one sheet for each month of the year. Each sheet links a woman to the season of its month. The large, carefully printed ōban sheets belong to the last phase of traditional bijin-ga in late Meiji, and they still show the influence of Toshihide's teacher, Yoshitoshi. Toshihide is best known for his prints of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars and for his book frontispieces (kuchi-e). His prints of beautiful women are much less common, and this series is the main example of that side of his work.

Estimate:$168.78

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