But that wouldn’t fit in the title area. And it probably wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Not that the name Kiyoshi Saito necessarily makes a lot of sense either, unless you’re a fan of sosaku hanga.

Anyway, I have a Kiyoshi Saito woodblock print of two roosters called Competition for a Charm. I love it. There are other prints of his that I covet fiercely and can’t afford, but I remember this one from my childhood, when it hung in my parents room. It went with me to college and it has been with me in every place since.

And of course, now I have become a crazy chicken lady with a boyfriend that has too much time on his hands. Not, you understand, that I’m complaining. “We need some chicken art on the back of the garage,” he said the other day. “I know what I’ll do!”**

**Steve credits his inspiration to Joy Wants Eternity. If anyone should feel so inclined, he would love free tickets.

Next, I also snagged a Junichiro Sekino woodblock for next to nothing. It was in a terrible frame, and the colors seemed pretty dingy. But it lightened up without the grimy glass–and it was framed flat on painted plywood, so it’s still in pretty good condition. I found it in the Sekino reference book Elias gave me (thank you): It’s Minakuchi from the Tokaido series.

Heian Shrine

And then there’s this little guy:

Gihachiro Okuyama

Tokyo University

Morning after the First Snow

Saburo Miyata

Mountain Stream at Oirase

Unknown

I have a ton of unframed prints I haven’t posted up at the house. Those that come with frames, I lug down to the shack and put up on the many bare walls. Which is where I am, and where my digital camera is, so ….

Eichii Kotozuka. I’m not a huge fan, with the exception of a couple of prints. She looks so young and tense, and the way her kimono is depicted is lovely. That said, if this hadn’t been dirt cheap, I probably wouldn’t have bought it:

Another one I wouldn’t have bought if it hadn’t been dirt cheap. But I have another print with a girl and rabbit, and it appealed to my whimsy to have two. The frame and glass are terrible, but the print itself is in good shape, notwithstanding the fact that someone folded the margins to make it fit in the frame. It looks much better outside the frame–but I have other prints I would rather spend money on framing, so back in it went.
Oh yes, this is Shuzo Ikeda.

Sometimes, one (that is the royal one, one understands) does not pay very close attention to the size of what one is bidding on–and one ends up paying a lot for two little “nothing” prints rather than not very much for two prints one knows nothing about but likes.

Sigh. I love Toshi Yoshida’s less representational stuff. Pencil titled, signed, and dated 1954. It needs to be reframed at some point, but I rather like it as is:

… and this Kiyoshi Nagai …

… and it occurs to me that I haven’t posted any of the prints I’ve bought in the past 6 to 8 months. So here they are.

A Mikumo print–which confuses me, because I thought Mikumo was a publisher. I like this print, but the main reason I bought it was because my great aunt Elaine had it. It reminds me of her little house in San Diego, with the huge deck built into a little green canyon.

I think I’m over the Tokuriki phase. The prints are quite pleasant, but some of them are just not very appealing. Like this one:

On the other hand, I really like this little Teruhide Kato:

Ditto Maekawa Senpan:

And I don’t really know why I ended up getting these three Kaoru Kawano prints at that auction house I like going to–other than the fact that they were dirt cheap. I don’t like Kawano. Every time I look at them, I get a creepy feeling. But here they are:

I wasn’t that interested in selling, but he was really nice. We started e-mailing about Sekino prints. I sent him pictures of the other four I have, and he encouraged me to post pictures on the blog. So here they are:

Roosters Fighting

Dont know the title … Boy with Owls?

My Daughter

Don’t know the title, but think this is from the Tokaido series

And to make a long story short, he’s a serious collector who has been looking for this print for 10 years (in other words, he’s not a dilettante like me) and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. And while I like the print enormously, the fact is that he will get much more enjoyment out of it than I will. So I’m sending it off to him.

And I think I’m going to buy one of those Saitos I’ve been coveting.

I have coveted this one for a while.

Jakkou-in

I like this too.

Rock Garden

This one I wasn’t quite so wild about at first–it was part of the lot–but it’s now growing on me. Kind of like what appears to be a fungus on the upper lefthand margin.

Kamisori in Hakutashijoro Rochin
From The Complete Works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon

Mom also sent me this Sekino bijin-ja for my birthday. Apparently, it was my grandfather’s favorite print. Hmmm, wonder why …

Also, Steve got me all sorts of great gifts for my birthday, but by far the best was Helen Merritt’s Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints. I am thrilled with it. On the other hand, you know you’re getting old and boring when you start requesting reference materials for gifts.