Artist: Totoya Hokkei
Title: Couple at Enoshima Gate
Date: Meiji Copy A
Details & Prices: More information...
Source:
Robyn Buntin of Honolulu
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Description:
No existing original. This is a copy of a surimono, a so-called Akashi copy named after the Japanese town where they were faithfully reproduced in the 1890s, probably for sale to foreigners. Many of these copies (the 'copy-A' versions) show the same elaborate printing techniques as the originals of the early 19th century. That is why they were taken for originals as late as into the 1970s. It was only in the ground-breaking publication of Roger Keyes, THE ART OF THE SURIMONO, that their existence was documented for the first time. Original surimono were often commissioned by poetry circles and privately published. Surimono represent the peak in Japanese woodblock printing techniques. Their costly production resulted in very limited editions of a handful of impressions of each design only. So it doesn't come as a surprise that Akashi copies have become collectors' items within the last years, not only because of their incredible faithfulness to the originals, but above all because of their true beauty.
