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Snow at Iwashimizu-Hachiman Shrine, Kyoto
by Asano Takeji

	Artist:	Asano Takeji — 浅野竹二
	Title:	Snow at Iwashimizu-Hachiman Shrine, Kyoto
	Series:
	Date of first edition?:	1952
	Publisher (first edition)?:	Unsodo — 芸艸堂
	Publisher (this edition)?:	Unsodo — 芸艸堂
	Medium (first edition):	Woodblock
	Medium (this edition):	Woodblock
	Format (first edition):	Oban
	Format (this edition):	Oban
	DB artwork code:	30910
	Notes (first edition)?:
	Notes (this edition)?:	The following information was taken from the original web listing of this artwork. Note that there may be some inaccuracies: Woodblock by Asano ‘Snow at Iwashimizu-Hachiman Shrine, Kyoto’ Beautiful snow scene titled in both Japanese kanji (left margin) as “Iwashimizu Hachimangu Yuki” and in English at bottom as “Snow in Iwashimizu-Hachiman Shrine, Kyoto” by Takeji Asano (1900-??). Asano, who also excelled as a carver, is known for having produced several series of prints depicting the Kyoto area of Japan. Bears artist’s signature of “Takaji ga” lower right corner of image. Print bears Unsodo’s Publisher’s rectangular seal in right margin along with the carver/printer seals of Okura/Shinmi. Print itself is undated, however Okura (carver) is known to have worked for Unsodo during the 1950’s. Also bears “Gei” watermark (“gei” is the first kanji character of the of the Unsodo Publishers name, "Un-so-do,” which is spelled “gei” if alone) in the upper left corner. Clearly printed on older, hand-made paper. Circa very late 1950’s/early 1960--to learn more about "old paper," click the following link about Old Paper. SPECIAL NOTE: In mid-year 2000, consignor located and spoken with the actual printer, Shinmi (now in his 90's) and determined that same with Asano's "Kamigamo" print, that these too were confirmed to be from the publisher's original remaining "very early edition" prints. Thusly, these are from the publisher's original remaining "very early edition" prints (of which my consignor bought the ENTIRE remaining inventory). And, as I always say, "when they're gone, they'll be gone forever." Image measures 9 ½ x 14 ¼ inches.
	Artist Bio:	Asano Takeji was born in Kyoto in 1900 and studied art in his youth. He graduated from the Kyoto City School of Fine Arts in 1919 and subsequently from the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting in 1923. One of his early teachers was the artist and printmaker Tsuchida Bakusen, with whom he studied Japanese-style painting. Asano helped to organise the Kyoto Creative Print Society (Kyoto Sosaku-Hanga Kyokai) in 1929. In 1930, Asano contributed several designs to a series of prints titled "Creative Prints of Twelve Months in new Kyoto" (Sosaku-hanga shin Kyoto junikagetsu). These prints were published by Uchida. The other artists contributing to this series were Benji Asada and Tomikichiro Tokuriki, also members of the Kyoto Creative Print Society. Asano's work as a shin hanga print designer continued throughout the 1930's, but along the way he learned the skills of carving and printing. This enabled him to create his own self-carved and self-printed series of landscape prints titled "Noted Views in the Kyoto-Osaka Area" (Kinki meisho fukei) in 1947. During the 1950's, Asano designed numerous landscape prints for the publisher Unsodo. These popular landscape prints are still being reprinted today. Original Unsodo prints have the Japanese date printed in the margin, while the modern reprints lack the date. Inspired by the encouragement of the Lithuanian-American social realism artist Ben Shahn, who once visited him in his studio and remained his friend, Asano established a freer artistic style often featuring animals in bold colours, later in his career. Asano continued to work as a printmaker during the 1970's and 80's. These late prints were simple and often humorous, signed with the letters T.A. and the date. This information has been excerpted from various web sources and from Merritt and Yamada's Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975. 浅野 竹二（あさの たけじ、明治33年（1900年）10月24日-平成10年（1998年）2月10日） 京都の日本画家、版画家。京都市立絵画専門学校で日本画を専攻、途中油絵に手をそめましたが、再び日本画に復帰、土田麦僊の率いる「山南塾」に入塾し、国画創作協会展に出品するなど日本画家として活躍しました。