Okuyama Gihachiro: Nikka Whiskey Distillery (SOLD)

Artist: Okuyama Gihachiro (1907-1981)
Title: Nikka Whiskey Distillery Date: 1943 

Unusual view of a whiskey factory during wartime. Japan’s first whiskey distillery only opened in the 1920s, and it’s interesting to see that whiskey was an important enough product that it was still produced at a time when most production was centered on the war effort. A worker feeds coal into one of the blazes that provide heat to the stills, while another rolls a wooden barrel in the background and another seems to be checking the equipment atop the large boilers. Note the Shinto shide folded paper streamers hanging from the copper stills, which are used to indicate blessing and purification, among other things. The shide also are hanging from the entrance to the factory, thus perhaps demarcating it as a sacred or blessed space. This view of a “pure” Japanese product being produced in a factory environment might also bring to mind in the viewer the thousands of factories throughout Japan that at the time were producing  munitions, aircraft and naval supplies for the empire’s war machine. Gihachiro was active in both the shin hanga and sosaku hanga movements, and his style varied greatly. Unsurprisingly, this is a rather scarce design, as supplies for woodblock prints were very restricted during World War II.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
Dimensions: ôban (24.2 x 36.8 cm)
Literature: National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. 
Signature: Gihachiro ga

SKU: GHR010