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Ocha-No-Mizu — 御茶ノ水
by Shotei Takahashi (1871-1945) Hiroaki

Original caretaker of this artwork: eBay

	Artist:	Shotei Takahashi (1871-1945) Hiroaki — 松亭高橋、弘明
	Title:	Ocha-No-Mizu — 御茶ノ水
	Series:
	Date of first edition?:	1923 (prior to)
	Publisher (first edition)?:	Watanabe Shozaburo — 渡辺
	Publisher (this edition)?:	Watanabe Shozaburo — 渡辺
	Medium (first edition):	Woodblock
	Medium (this edition):	Woodblock
	Format (first edition):	Oban
	Format (this edition):	Oban
	DB artwork code:	46854
	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: ORIGINAL JAPANESE WOODBLOCK PRINT by SHOTEI (aka HIROAKI) TITLE : OCHA -NO-MIZU: OCHANOMIZU IS A NEIGHBOURHOOD OF TOKYO JAPAN Ocha-no-mizu literally means "tea water", after the nearby Kanda River from which water was extracted to make the shogun's tea during the Edo period. The river can be seen to the right of the print. A RARE PRE-EARTHQUAKE DESIGN (PRE 1923 KANTO QUAKE) IN LARGE OBAN FORMAT SIGNED: SEAL "KAKEI" A NAME USED BY SHOTEI EARLY IN HIS CAREER. REFERENCE: http://shotei.com/artists/kakei/kakei.htm http://shotei.com/artists/shotei/shotei_catalog/shotei_catalog_list.php PUBLISHED BY WATANABE Condition: EXCELLENT UNFADED COLOUR AND IMPRESSION. PATCHED REPAIRS TO REVERSE (SEE PHOTOS FOR FURTHER EVALUATION- THE RED ARROWS POINT TO THE REPAIRS) Dimensions: UNTRIMMED LARGE OBAN 15 x 10 1/8 INS 36 CMS X 25.6cms
	Artist Bio:	Takahashi Shotei was born in Tokyo with the given name of Takahashi Katsutaro. At a young age he was trained in Nihon-ga , the traditional Japanese painting style by his uncle Matsumoto Fuko, and beginning around 1907 Shotei started designing for the Watanabe Color Print Company. Shotei was among the first designers to be recruited into Watanabe's stable of artists, which would later expand to include Goyo, Shinsui, Hasui, Kasamatsu, Koson and Koitsu among others. Many Watanabe prints were designed for export, primarily to North America, where the demand for all things Japanese was high in the early 20th century. By 1923 Shotei had produced nearly 500 designs for Watanabe, when Tokyo was hit by the Great Kanto earthquake -- the worst recorded natural catastrophe in the history of Japan. The fires ignited by the earthquake raged for three days, and Watanabe's print shop and all the woodblocks created by Shotei and the other early shin hanga artists, were destroyed. After the earthquake Shotei created another 250 prints mostly depicting scenic Japanese landscapes in the shin hanga style he had helped to define. He continued to work for Watanabe, but also worked with the publishers Fusui Gabo and Shobido Tanaka, where he had more control over the finished print than was possible with Watanabe. Shotei used a variety of names, signatures and seals during his lifetime. From 1907 until 1922 he used the name Shotei, and after 1922 Hiroaki and Komei.