Nishijima Katsuyuki – Vivid Colors

Original woodblock print, hand-signed by the artist. First published in 1995. The current print is from a lifetime edition.

Traditional umbrellas lie in front of an establishment in Gion, Kyoto. The umbrellas have a long artistic history, and woodblock print artists have been depicting them for a long time, often together with women using the umbrellas. More recent artists, like Teruhide Kato and Nishijima Katsuyuki here, have begun to give the umbrellas a more central place in some of their prints. Nishijima Katsuyuki often displays them, as in the current print, in front of a traditional building in Kyoto, this time focusing on the variety and vividness of the coloring of some of the umbrellas.

Image size (excluding margins): 19.7 * 27.3 cm (7.8 * 10.7 in).

The print is in excellent condition.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

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Nishijima Katsuyuki (b. 1945) is a prolific and popular Japanese woodblock artist. He has been perfecting his art since half a century, working in the Sosaku Hanga (creative prints) style, and thus carving and printing all by himself.

He has developed a completely unique style, making his prints recognizable from across the room. Common themes are country side landscapes and city scenes. Here, the scenes do not show people or modern tools, creating a timeless beauty, where, to an extent, it is possible to imagine oneself being in the present or a century earlier just as easily.

Nishijima Katsuyuki signs his prints, but many of the designs are unnumbered. With many designs and possibly recurring editions for his unnumbered prints, it seems that it was possible for him to keep them relatively affordable.

See an overview of Nishijima Katsuyuki's woodblock prints