A large and absolutely stunning kacho-e woodblock by Hodo Nishimura, vibrant in its diverse usage of color and exquisite detail to capture this mixed “bouquet” of wildflowers, set against the blue sky and looming day-moon.
The Woodblock Print
This oban-sized woodblock is in very good condition; lovely color, no discolorations in the print, full margins and a clean verso. The minor flaws to it are the toning discoloration in the margins and a soft crease that is only noticed in the verso of the print.
About the Artist
There is little biographical data available about the Japanese printmaker Hodo Nishimura (西村蒲堂). It is not currently know when or where he was born and when he died away. He is generally believed to have been an in-house artist for the publisher Takemura Hideo in Yokahama from around 1930 until the business shut down in 1941. He is known to have signed his watercolors and some of his woodcuts as “Saito Hodo” or “H. Saito”.
The majority of the work attributed to him was created in the late 1930s using traditional woodblock technique. His work was collected by the famous Japanese print collector Robert Muller.
