Hironobu: Evening szene at Kinkaku-ji
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Oda Hironobu (1888-?)

A quiet evening scene in the garden of Rokuon-ji temple in Kyoto, better known as Kinkaku-ji, the tmeple of the Golden Pavilion. A sole person dressed in workin attire is raking the path around the mirror-pond Kyôko-chi. In the hazy background appears the pavilion with the so called fishing hall (Tsuridono) attached on the side. A little known woodblock print depicting this famous temple before it was destroyed by the fire of 1950.

Title: 金閣寺の晩景 (Kinkakuji no bankei – Evening view of Kinkakuji temple).

Signature: Hironobu. Seal: Bird seal

Publisher: Maeba han

Date: 1930s

Size: Horizontal Ôban, 23,8 x 36,2 cm (image)

Excellent impression and colours. Full margins. Back side lined by a thin layer of yellowish glue (?), from a previous attachment (flexible, non-sticky and not bleeding through), partially removed, leaving paper minimally thinner in places. Overall very good and clean condition. Rare.

Very atmospheric print by this seldom seen artist, who created a small number of rather painterly views from different parts of Japan around the 1930, almost all with the same publisher's mark (see Marks U177). Cf. Amy Reigle Stephens et al, The new wave, London/Leiden 1993, p. 168. Also Merritt/Yamada p. 36 (Hironobu). For other prints by the artist see e.g. Smithsonian-(Freer/Sackler), Carnegie Museum of Art, MFA Boston.

€ 950,-