<b>NIGHT DOG SHOW</b> / Ishiwata Koitsu1931<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Ishiwata Koitsu is known for producing prints that focused on the everyday activities of the Japanese during the 1930s. Some of his most successful designs are night scenes and this print advances that point further. The design illustrates a transfixed crowd around a small village’s outdoor stage where a dog show takes place, the performers of which were known to execute charming and surprising tricks.

 Koitsu’s use of light is astonishing. The stage itself is a riot of color and light, which serves as an appropriate platform for the spectacle that lay before the villagers. The light from the stage spills out toward the night sky, creating a subtle and convincing halo effect. Meandering through the crowd, the stage light illuminates the transfixed faces of the audience, giving the viewer a sense of the wonder and spectacle of the performance.

Connoisseur's Note

This print was published by Watanabe and bears the B-type seal, which identifies this impression as an early first printing. I. Koitsu only produced a handful of designs for this publisher, as his prints were not as popular with Westerners due to their outright and straightforward depictions of Japanese life. Unlike Hasui’s romantic and nostalgic views of a bygone era, I. Koitsu’s designs demonstrated life in Japan as the Japanese encountered it. As such, this design is a faithful rendition of Japanese cultural phenomenal one would have experienced in the 1930s. The lack of sales in Watanabe’s shop makes all of I. Koitsu’s prints, and this design in particular, quite rare and highly sought-after.

This impression is an outstanding example of the design, retaining the full intensity of the colors. It is an inspired synthesis of bold and subtle printing and is a wonderful example of Shin Hanga from this period of printmaking.