Description
Woodblock Print by Katsuyuki Nishijima, "Shop in Takehara" (Takehara no Ho). Limited edition print, #132 of 500. Features artist's signature and red seal. Ca. 1980's. Horizontal format; H. 10"(25.5cm) X W. 14.75"(37.5cm). Excellent condition. *Fully matted, framed, & delivered option may be available for local purchasers (I-5 corridor from Seattle to Blaine, WA). Please contact for details.
The image is of a snowy day in front of the Taketsuru Shuzou sake shop in the town of Takehara in Hiroshima Prefecture, located on the Seto Inland Sea. The two interlocked squares shown on the noren (shop curtain) being the crest of the Taketsuru House. Taketsuru sake is still going strong to this day. Takehara was a major producer of salt going back nearly 400 years, and also of sake from the early 1700's, with Taketsuru being the oldest producer in town having been founded in 1733, after being a salt producer from the 1600's. Takehara has a designated Historical Conservation District of these old merchant buildings with their wooden latticework facades, white plaster walls, and ceramic roof tiles. It has been called "Aki no Kyoto", Aki being the old name of the province that was to become Hiroshima Prefecture in modern times.
Katsuyuki Nishijima, 1945 – present.
Katsuyuki Nishijima was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture at the southwest end of the main island of Honshu. At the age of 19, he started studying the art of woodblock printing making at the Mikumo Publishing Company in Kyoto. By the early 1970’s, he was beginning his career as a Sosaku Hanga (Creative Print) artist. As opposed to traditional woodblock prints of the 19th Century and earlier that were created by a team of artisans composed of designers, carvers, colorists, printers, and publishers; the Sosaku Hanga movement of the 20th Century highlighted the work of artists who self-drew, self-carved, and self-printed their own expressive works. Nishijima is a very popular contemporary Kyoto print artist and his works have been collected and exhibited widely in Japan, the US, and Europe.
Nishijima’s works could be called “romantic” in that there is something idealized and old-fashioned about his images. They rarely contain people; or modern elements such as cars, telephone wires, or even the ubiquitous Japanese trains. They focus on architectural elements such as tiled and thatched rooftops, verandas, noren shop curtains, the wooden latticework in front of Kyoto machiya buildings, stone walls, as well as Japanese rural landscapes. While these could be considered romantic and detached from reality, these elements still exist in modern-day Japan and are what visitors are drawn to and remember in places like Kyoto, Shigaraki, Takayama, and the like. One could say that instead of romanticizing Japanese scenery, he’s actually bringing out the essence of what is beautiful and important in humanity’s view of traditional Japan.