Kawatsura Yoshio (Negoro Raizan): Night at Shinagawa (SOLD)

Artist: Kawatsura Yoshio (Negoro Raizan) 1887-?
Title: Shinagawa at Night (Shinagawa no yoru)
Date: 1922

Night at Shinagawa. A bold visual poem of silver brushstrokes of waves reflecting like mercury from the brilliance of an unseen moon, the horizon a deep grey-green.  Three structures in grey shadow form our only visual anchor at bottom, and even those seem to shimmer in the evening light. To this dealer, this is a groundbreaking work in its design purity and unique twist on shin hanga, unlike works done by any other artist at the time. Very little is known about the artist Raizan.  His prints are very scarce, most likely because they were published before the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and most of them were therefore destroyed. We also can assume that his publisher did not have the marketing genius of Watanabe Shozaburo. The Robert Muller collection at the Freer Gallery of Art has 17 works by Raizan; otherwise, few examples are known. These works never include a white paper margin--the design goes all the way to the paper edge. Scarce.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. 
Dimensions: 37 x 23.7 cm (oban)
Publisher: Yoshikawa Kobunkan
LIterature:  Illustrated in “The new wave”, page 167, number 204. See the Freer Gallery of Art online for the Muller example.

SKU: RZN010