Nom de Plume

A while ago, I got an e-mail from someone who wanted to buy this Sekino print, which he had seen here:

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 bought this during the last Georgetown Art Walk ( a month ago) and just picked it up tonight. The artist is Mark Lafalce and once again, my pictures don’t really do it justice.

Well, maybe one and a half. There is masking tape residue and staining at the top, but it’s pretty localized and the tape itself peeled up easily.

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.

My excuse for buying this Noda Kyuho print is that it’s for Steve, who sails.

Kamisori in Hakutashijoro Rochin
From The Complete Works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon

Once again proving I am out of control, here are three prints I just had framed. BTW, I wasn’t sure if the Toshi Yoshida was pencil signed; it is.

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.

I can’t seem to scrape off all the glue without digging into the washi. I think I’m done. Let’s face it, these aren’t worth what I paid. Live and learn. I will still enjoy.

The cardboard backing of this one had 2-22-53 scrawled in pencil. This makes sense; according to the Doi publisher’s seal, was printed around the same time.

So those two Koitsu prints I bought off eBay? Stupid. They are completely glued to backing.

I am now performing surgery.

I’ve been a little out of control lately.

In addition to the Sekiguchi, I’ve also bought two Koitsu prints (either a really smart eBay buy or a really stupid one–I won’t know until I get them), a strange little bijin-ja that I know absolutely nothing about, and a Toshi Yoshida (a lifetime strike, but don’t know whether it’s pencil signed or printed).

And it occurs to me that I haven’t posted everything I’ve had reframed or bought. So here goes.

Reframed the Saito. The picture doesn’t do it justice. (Actually, none of my pictures do justice to the prints. Bear with me.)

Recycled the Saito frame on this Kiyoshi Nagai print.

Reused the existing frame on my beloved hot spring print, but added conservation materials to the inside. It’s on the wall next to my side of the bed, and I love looking at it.

Reframed the Narazaki (Nazaraki? I always mix it up) print. This was a hard, hard print to frame, and I’m still not completely sure I like it. Covering the margins seemed like a good idea at the time — it was very difficult finding a mat color that didn’t make it look weird — but I think I’m regretting it.

This lovely Seiichiro Konishi print has not been reframed at all — though it was probably framed in the seventies and needs its innards replaced with conservation materials.

There isn’t much information available about Seiichiro Konishi. If anyone knows more about him than is available on artelino, or can read the following, please let me know!

**UPDATE July 2009–Found this print on Artelino. It’s called Shinbashi in Kyoto.

I’ve finally managed to articulate what it is I love about Japanese shin hana and sosaku hanga prints. Looking at them induces (in me at least) that sense of being nostalgic for the very moment you’re in. Just like autumn.

In any case.

Picked this lovely Sekiguchi print.

This guy is amazing; I love his woodblocks, which I found in the McClain’s gallery a few months ago. He had sold out of this particular print and I was mucho bummed. It reminds me of those wonderful Sekino self-portraits, but with a more contemporary twist. Now he’s found one.