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Subject:Re: Mystery Japanese print
Posted By: Marc Kahn Thu, Oct 02, 2014
Jim,
The signature reads "Hiroshige hitsu" or "from the brush of Hiroshige". But, it's not true. In the 1920s-1930s, many Western tourists came to Japan with the idea that they wanted to come home with a Hiroshige print. Western demand had already depleted original Hiroshige prints and they were not available. However, there were plenty of enterprising print publishers/salespeople who were willing to produce prints, the designs of which were knockoffs of other designs and which had Hiroshige's signature. These prints were sold to unsuspecting Westerners as "Hiroshige prints". That's what you've got... a knockoff tourist print.
The theme of swallows and willow is a recurring one in Japanese art. It looks to me that your print is a knockoff of an original design by Sozan (as you suspected) and/or another design by Daiko. If you do Google searches for 'swallows willow "japanese print" sozan' and 'swallows willow "japanese print" daiko', the search results will lead you to pictures of the sources of your knockoff.
Marc
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