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| Artist: | Tomoe (Shotei Takahashi copy by Watanabe) — ともゑ |
| Title: | Moonrise at Tokumochi |
| Series: | |
| Date of first edition?: | Not set |
| Date of this artwork?: | 1950s/60s/70s (may not be accurate) |
| Publisher (first edition)?: | Watanabe Shozaburo — 渡辺 |
| Publisher (this edition)?: | Watanabe — 渡辺 |
| Medium (first edition): | Woodblock |
| Medium (this edition): | Woodblock |
| Format (first edition): | Postcard
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| Format (this edition): | Postcard |
| DB artwork code: | 43248 |
| Notes (first edition)?: |
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| Notes (this edition)?: |
| The following information was taken from the original web listing of this artwork. Note that there may be some inaccuracies:
Up for bids is an original Japanese woodblock print. It is one of a set of three, each signed by a different artist, and I have the other two listed as well.
The size of the image, not including the narrow border, is 3 ¼” by 5 ¼”, and the size of the paper the print is mounted on is 4 5/8” by 7”. The print is tacked to the paper at the two upper corners and when the print is lifted, you can see the ink bled on the underside. This print is signed (see close-up), but I am unable to identify the name. I don’t know its age. It is in excellent condition. |
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| Artist Bio: |
Many of the prints signed "Tomoe" are clearly scenes by Takahashi Shotei and were sold by Watanabe from around the 1960s. Unusually, Watanabe Shoichiro, in an email reply to a colleague around 2008, stated that the prints are by Kawase Hasui: see the following email:
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Dear Al,
Thank you very much for your email and enquires.
The artist of the post card sized prints is Kawase Hasui. The seal is sounded "Tomoe (a Whirl)". Tomoe is the meaning of "Ha". On the other hand, "Sui" means "Mizu (Water)".
He sometimes used "Tomoe" as his artist name for some small sized prints, instead of "Hasui".
I hope this information is available for your enquiry.
Sincerely,
Shoichiro Watanabe
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What Shoichiro is suggesting here is that "Tomo" is a reading for Hasui's first kanji "巴", and "e" (in Tomo-e) is a reading for "画" meaning brush-stroke; picture. Thus, Tomoe means "painted by Hasui". My guess here is that Watanabe Tadasu, the second owner of Watanabe Woodblock Prints, decided to sell the postcards as being by the more famous Hasui, rather than by the lesser-known Takahashi Shotei, to increase sales.
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