Kiyoshi: Dressing her hair
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Kobayakawa Kiyoshi (1896?*-1948)

A plump young beauty of the early Shôwa period, dressed in a carelessly thrown-on light pastel-coloured shibori nagajuban underkimono. She fixes her elaborate hairstyle with a long-handled comb, looking intently into a mirror unseen by the viewer.

Title: "Kamiyui" ("Dressing her hair", given title)

Signature: Kiyoshi shi. Seal: Kobayakawa

Publisher: Seal lower right: Tanr(y)okudô-han (Ensendô), i.e. Takamizawa, Tokyo

Date: 1931-33

Size: Vertical Dai-Ôban, 40.3 x 25.2 cm (overall size)

Fine impression and colours, with strong relief printing and details printed with silver pigment and gofun, the background with shimmering mica (kirazuri). Paper only a little age-toned (rare with this print), verso in corners small diagonal paper remnants from previous attachment. One of the few prints that were created by this important Shin Hanga artist, in overall excellent condition. Here the rarer seen“cooler" colour variant with the kimono in pastel green and violet, the signature with two characters, and the Tanrokudô seal (other reading Tanryôkudô, see e.g. Marks, Publishers, U236).

Blair, Toledo Cat. 1936, no. 125 (titled "Kami - Hair", same signature, publisher given as Ensendô, dated 1933, b/w ill.). Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints. The Early Years, Honolulu 1990, p. 96, as "Woman Fixing Her Hair", same seal and signature, ill. b/w. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Catalogue of Collections - Prints. Tokyo 1993, ill. no 1335, b/w, titled "Toilet" (M00120-002), same publisher's seal and signature, yellow and red kimono (see online collection). Amy Reigle Newland/Hamanaka Shinji, The female image. Tokyo/Leiden, 2000, pp. 145 and 199, nos. 195-1 and 195-2, illustrations of both colour and signature variants, dated 1931. For the artist, see also Amy Reigle Stephens et al, The new wave, London/Leiden 1993, pp. 176 f.

sold

* There is still some uncertainty regarding the artist's year of birth; the references offer various dates, the earliest being 1889 (e.g. Female Image), then 1896 (Blair, Merritt, New Wave, Marks), 1897 (Roberts), 1898 (Schwan), and finally 1899 (Japanese Wikipedia).