A SET OF PROOFS FROM WOODBLOCKS

Josiah Conder's Paintings and Studies by Kawanabe Kyosai, published in 1911, was mostly illustrated by collotypes, with a single colour reproduction at the beginning of the book reserved for the right-hand panel of Kyosai's Yamato bijin no zu [Japanese Beauties] to which the artist had devoted six months' labour (see note to lot 212). The reproduction was prepared under the supervision of the photographer and pioneering art publisher Ogawa Isshin (1860-1929) who studied photography in Boston from 1883 to 1885, took part in government-commissioned projects to document Japan's artistic heritage, and published the influential art periodical Kokka which has continued to the present day; in 1910 he was appointed Teishitsu gigeiin [Artist to the Imperial Household], the only photographer to receive this honour. Ogawa's introduction explains that in order to ensure fidelity to the original the woodblocks were cut using a glass plate negative as a guide instead of the traditional hand-traced drawing. By applying no fewer than 123 blocks, Ogawa's team was able to capture the rich textures of the original painting with remarkable fidelity.1

1 Tokyo Station Gallery, pp. 63-4 and 202