Ito Shinsui 伊東深水: A Theatrical Dance– Dojoji (Sold)

Artist: Itō Shinsui (1898-1972)
Title: A Theatrical Dance-- Dojoji  Date: 1932

Impressive, oversized format print. The noh performer’s bold kimono fills the space, cascading down to create the shape of a steep mountain from our view from below. We see hints of cherry blossoms falling in the background against swirling grey textures. This very scarce design was commissioned by the Japanese Government Railways and would have been affixed to a larger lithographed poster backdrop featuring the bronze temple bell of Dojoji against a striped outdoor theater curtain. The Chazen Museum of Art example was purchased by Edward Burr Van Vleck from the Japanese Travel Bureau at the Chicago Fair in 1933. Woodblock prints of this size presented unique challenges, as finding solid blocks of cherry of this size would have been difficult, and printing the work itself with exact registration required the utmost expertise.

Musume Dôjôji is a dance-drama that is a Kabuki adaptation of the famous Nôh play “Dôjôji; it was performed for the first time in Edo in 1753. This dancer must be the young woman Kiyo-hime, who falls in love with a priest of Dôjôji Temple. Her hat, decorated with flowers, and her red kimono featuring stylized blossoms against meandering water, is the costume that is associated with this role.

English title printed on the bottom margin: A Theatrical Dance entitled "Dojoji," Artist- Ito Shinsui. Wood-cut Printing by S. Watanabe, Tokyo.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. This work has a backing that we can presume was originally applied when the print was created, so that it could be more securely mounted to the original poster. Dimensions: 60.3 x 25.5 cm
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo
References: Watanabe Tadasu, Ito Shinsui: All the Woodblock Prints, 1992, pp. 114-115, no. 74; Amy Reigle Newland and Hamanaka Shinji, The Female Image, 2000, p. 75, no. 80. See Chazen Museum collection and the Honolulu Museum of Art collection. 
Signature: Shinsui ga

SKU: SNC110S