Evening at Mii Temple

This later edition print (from the original woodblocks)by Tsuchiya Koitsu shows Mii Temple (or Miidera) located at the foot of Mount Hiei in Otsu, the region around Lake Biwa.

The print was first published in 1936, however the publisher seal used in the left hand margin (see below) shows that this print was produced after 1981 but is believed to be printed using the original blocks used in the 1936 edition.

The print is in the Shin-Hanga (new prints) style.

The print is in the Cuban format - approximately 18cm wide by 25cm high, with additional margin space for the print title and seals of the publisher, carver, and printer.

This print has been allocated code TK-DH-37 in the Koitsu Raisonne database: http://www.koitsu.com/DB/ItemDetail.asp?item=6862

 
 

  • Harada Kamataro was listed as an active carver for Karaoke School when he was 58 years old, but it is not clear when hetook over the role of principal carver forDoi Hangmen.

  • According to research by Chihiro “Tosh” Doi (http://shinhanga.net/DAcarvers-printers.htm#Pseki) , Seki Kenji was born around 1940, and studied as an in-house apprentice student under the Doi printer Yokoi until 1965, when he was promoted to the main printer for Doi at the age of 25. Seki worked as an independent printer after he left Doi Hangmen in 1995.

 
 
 

Seal Information

Publisher

The publisher of this print - Doi Publishing House - is identified by the ‘Doi Eiichi ’ seal that appears in the lower left hand margin of the print - this seal has been used since 1981. The two columns of characters read “Doi Eiichi” on the left, and “harken shoju” (which translates to copyright reserved) on the right. The seal was validated using information from ‘The Doi Publishing House Seals’ from http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/doipage1.htm where both the publisher, carver, and printer can be matched to the Doi Eiichi seal.

Artist

The artist - Tsuchiya Koitsu - is believed to be identified by the signature ‘Koitsu’ and red seal that appears in the bottom right hand corner of the print.

Carver

The carver Harada is identified by the left hand block of characters at the bottom left hand corner of the print outside the margin. The seal has been validated using information from ‘The Doi Publishing House Seals’ from http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/doipage1.htm.

To identify the carvers seal, look at the top character in the left hand block - the three lines on the right hand side of the character (‘horn’ - carver) represent the sharp knife strokes used by the carver (see http://shinhanga.net/doiseals.htm#carver-printer)

Printer

The printer - Seki - is identified by the right hand block of characters at the bottom left hand corner of the print outside the margin. The seal has been validated using information from ‘The Doi Publishing House Seals’ from http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/doipage1.htm

Title

The title appears next to the artist seal in the bottom hand corner of the print, and translates to ‘Evening at Mii Temple’’