<b>AT ITATSUKI MOUNTAIN</b> / Umetaro Azechi1955<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

The Sosaku Hanga artist Azechi Umetaro was an avid mountaineer. He dedicated a large portion of his artistic career to depicting the various mountains he climbed and immortalizing the men who climbed with him. In this small but charming design, we have a figure sitting up in bed in the middle of the night looking out a moonlit window. The figure is motionless, perhaps spellbound by the vastness of the mountain range that lay before him. One can’t help to wonder if this figure is Azechi himself, up late the night before a steep ascent. The vision in the window may have been a temporary adversary extending the challenge of a difficult climb, but it also was a source of inspiration for Azechi, as this design and so many countless others proclaim.

Connoisseur's Note

Self-printed Azechi prints were usually produced in small runs. At the time of this design, his self-printed editions numbered 30 impressions, as is the case with this printing. Later impressions of this design are identifiable by a different and harsher coloration as well as the larger stylized block signature the artist used after 1955. These later printings were produced by Yoseido Gallery using professional printers but lack the emotional depth and spontaneous printing quality of the self-printed versions.