Hiroaki: The Red Gate at Hongo in Clear Weather After Snow (SOLD) 本郷赤門 (Yukibare [Hongo akamon]) First Edition

Artist: Takahashi Hiroaki (Shotei) 高橋松亭 弘明
Title: The Red Gate at Hongo in Clear Weather After Snow — 雪晴（本郷赤門 (Yukibare [Hongo akamon]) First Edition
Date: 1926

A Taishô era view of Tokyo’s Hongo Red Gate in the snow. To the left walk  two gentlemen wearing modern western attire, with trousers and overcoats. Behind them is a rickshaw driver hurrying through the snow, a red lantern attached at the front. The artist seems to have chosen an aizuri-e (blue-pinted picture) style landscape, with the standout addition of the deep red of the temple. This view could be from the late 19th century but for the overcoats of the two men. Hongo Akamon is now a gate to Tokyo University; it used to be part of the Kaga Domain Edo mansion that housed the Maeda clan lord of the Kaga Domain and was built in 1827. It was built in the yakui-mon sytle, with a gable roof, and is now registerd as an Important Cultural Property.  Hiroaki prints with early Watanabe seals are quite rare.

First edition, with the Watanabe seal in use between 1924 and 1930.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
Dimensions: 26 x 38.5 cm
Publisher: Watanabe Shôzaburô
Seal: Hiroaki  

Reference: Hisao Shimizu, Syotei (Hiroaki) Takahashi: His Life and Work, Folk Museum of Ota City, 2005, p. 59, no. 271

Hisao Shimizu, The Collected Printed Works of Shotei Takahashi, A Modern Ukiyo-e Painter, 2006, p. 56, no. 93. See Universiy of Wisconsin-Madison.

SKU: HIA035S