Description
Beautiful woodblock print of the kuchi-e (口絵) type taken from vol. 19 n. 6 of the literary magazine Bungei Kurabu (文芸倶楽部), made by the artist Kaburagi Kiyokata (鏑木清方) and depicting a “chaya musume” (茶屋娘), a teahouse waitress, who is placing a candle inside a lantern at dusk.
Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878 – 1972), a nihonga (日本画) style artist and son of the founder of the famous newspaper Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shinbun (東京日日新聞), was one of the leading masters of the bijin-ga (美人画) genre in Taisho (大正) and Showa (昭和) periods. Disciple of Mizuno Toshikata (水野年方) and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年), in the early part of his career he devoted himself mainly to the production of woodcut illustrations. But his best artistic efforts were directed to painting, so much so that in 1944 he received the official position of court painter.
The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), produced in April 1913 by the Hakubunkan (博文館) publishing house and entitled “The Lamp-lighting Time” (ひともし頃), despite the right signs of aging including slight folds and wrinkles, as well as the presence of a small hole in the lower margin and a partial trimming of the margins, is in overall good condition.
