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Souemon-cho, Osaka

Souemon-cho, Osaka 大阪宗右衛門町
by Shunho - Haruyoshi

The artworks displayed on JAODB are not for sale.

Artist: Shunho - Haruyoshi 春芳
Title: Souemon-cho, Osaka 大阪宗右衛門町
Series: 
Date of first edition?1937/2
Publisher (first edition)?Baba Nobuhiko 馬場信彦
Publisher (this edition)?Baba Nobuhiko 馬場信彦
Medium (first edition): Woodblock
Medium (this edition): Woodblock
Format (first edition): Oban
Format (this edition): Oban
DB artwork code: 47461
Notes (first edition)?
Similar to the Kawase Hasui scene.

Title: Soemoncho in Osaka

Signature: Shunho.

Seal: In red.

Dated: 1937, February.

Publisher: Baba Nobuhiko.

Technique: Woodblock print

絵師   春芳(Shunho? Haruyoshi?)
題名   大阪 宗右衛門町
時代   昭和12年(1937年)
サイズ  大判 (縦42.3cm×横29cm)
Notes (this edition)?
Artist Bio: 
Shunho was probably a publisher's pseudonym used for knock-offs of scenes by well-known artists. It has been suggested that Shunho was a pseudonym for Tsuchiya Koitsu (remember that Koitsu published quite a few prints via the publisher Baba in the 1930s). Take for example Shunho's Zojoji scene. Yes, it does look similar to Koitsu's Zojoji scene, especially the colour scheme, and it is of course possible that, after the war, when Baba re-established his business, Koitsu sold Baba some previously unpublished sketches that Baba published after Koitsu's death.

However, there is ample evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Shunho was not Tsuchiya Koitsu or any other known artist. For example, please note that the Zojoji print is dated 昭和二十九年作 (Showa 29, or 1954), and that Tsuchiya Koitsu died in 1949. The margin text is very similar to Tsuchiya Koitsu's hand writing, but obviously he could not have written the margin text, including the date of 1954. I'm thinking here that Baba simply took advantage of Koitsu's passing and reproduced this similar scene using his own carvers and printers, including the same colour palette and hand writing style.

The strongest evidence that Shunho was an in-house artist of "knock-off" reproductions for the publisher Baba can be found by searching for the artist Shunho in my JAODB database. There we can clearly see that Shunho prints are simply reproductions (fakes) of several scenes by Tsuchiya Koitsu (Zojoji, Miyajima in Snow, etc.) and Kawase Hasui (Night Scene at Soemoncho).

The artworks displayed on JAODB are not for sale.

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Site copyright: Dr Ross F. Walker. Copyright of the displayed artwork: the original owner. The information contained on this website is provided as an educational resource to scholars and collectors of Japanese art. JAODB would like to thank the caretakers of these art items for their contribution to this database. The items displayed here are not being offered for sale. Unless otherwise indicated the displayed item is not in the ownership of JAODB or Ross Walker.