Vintage Japanese Woodblock Print Framed, entitled: Lotus (Hasu) by Itō Jakuchū

Dimension:  14-5/6” h x 10-2/3”w

This wonderful woodblock print (ink and color on paper) was inspired by Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) and was published by Unsodo, (editors Kondō Tokutarō and Yamada Kōtarō) and from Volume 2 of “Jakuchū gafu”, (Album of Jakuchū), consisting of woodblock images of seasonal flowers and produced after the original ceiling paintings by an artist working at the Shingyouji temple Kyoto. These images were always in the format of a circle and referred to as tokudaibon from the Meiji period. 

In a bold, graphic composition, overlapping lotus leaves and lotus flowers and buds are rendered in expanses of pale gray, pink ink with a “black-line drawing technique that when printed from the woodblock achieved to achieve these original paintings. There are no seals or signatures other than the title which appeared on each woodblock published in this series. The original Carmel, California collector preserved the piece by framing it in a 1950s round red acrylic window frame, (said round frames were impossible to both find and afford and wanted to represent current times). It is framed with silk matting and kept the original tassels from which it was hung.

Itō Jakuchū was one of the Three Eccentrics of the Edo period, together with Soga Shōhaku (1730– 1781) and Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799). Born the eldest son of a wholesale grocer in Kyoto, Jakuchū inherited the family business and ran it for more than fifteen years. It was not until he reached his late thirties that he began to paint full-time from which later woodblock prints were made.

Condition: Generally excellent and retaining the original craft/workmanship without stains or discoloration with minimal imperfections related to the original binding. The piece meets all the standards of collectible Japanese Woodblock prints.