Maekawa Senpan 千帆 : Old Karuizawa in Summer 軽井沢之部

Artist: Maekawa Senpan 前川千帆 (1888-1960)

Title: Old Karuizawa in Summer 軽井沢之部

Series: 日本風景版画 Landscape Prints of Japan  Date: 1929  Size: 18.5 x 25.7 cm

Charming street scene capturing a summer day in Karuizawa almost one hundred years ago. We see women holding parasols and men in white suits on a charming shopping street of Karuizawa. As the women seem to have blond hair, these may be foreign visitors that Senpan has depicted. It was a Canadian minister who first popularized Karuizawa in the 1880s, especially for foreign visitors. Today the residents and visitors are mostly Japanese, as it a popular place for city dwellers to escape the summer heat; Karuizawa is still something like the Hamptons of Tokyo, with many wealthy Japanese having a second home there.

The artist achieved Western recognition through inclusion in Oliver Statler's Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn (1956) and James Michener's portfolio and book The Modern Japanese Print. An Appreciation (1962).  He "was one of the great personalities of twentieth-century Japanese prints, a man of notable independence, and a political radical, yet a staunch traditionalist and supporter of Japanese folk life and customs."

Condition: Excellent impression and color; very good condition. Two  tape marks in upper corners.

Publisher: Self-published  Signature: Sealed with the artist’s seal "Han"

SKU: MKS011