A woman in traditional clothing and an umbrella, along with a man with a pack, move quickly through the night and a driving rain along a canal. A single street lamp lights the scene.
The Woodblock Print
Approximately 15.5 x 7.25 inches, this print that we’re calling an o-hosoban is in excellent condition. Rich color, no discolorations, clean and sharp margins and a clean verso. Delicate shades of grey and black with bright pops of color in the woman’s clothing and the street light.
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.
