Unknown, snowy shrine

Catalog note / 解説

A Superb & Celebrated Japanese Woodblock Print by Kiyoshi Saito. Those familiar with our listings on Ebay will know that we never use the term "museum quality", until now, that is. We have long admired the prints of the Sosaku-hanga movement in Japan and although Saito stood a little apart from the mainstream of this group of artists he was no doubt, certainly in his early years, in sympathy with the aims of Onchi and others of the group. He was born in 1907 and thus was 34 years of age when he designed the group of prints of which our example is one, a series of snow scenes in his home prefecture of Aizu. His character seems to have been a little prickly and uncompromising and he is known…