[Gyofu (Fisherman)]

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[Gyofu (Fisherman)]

[Yamamoto], Kanae [illustrated by]; [Hashimoto, Okiie (printed by)].

[Japan: Hashimoto Okiie, 1960].

A 1960 memorial edition printing of Fisherman by pioneering sōsaku hanga artist Yamamoto Kanae (1882–1946). The Cleveland Museum of Art provides the following description of the original work:

"This modest print marks the beginning of the sosaku-hanga movement which encouraged artists to carve and print woodblocks themselves. Fisherman, featured in the art and literary magazine Myojo (Morning Star) in 1904, accompanied an article describing Yamamoto's revolutionary defiance of the traditional separation between the originator of the design and the artisans who execute the print, elevating woodcuts to the level of fine art. The print is also unmistakably modern in the simple, poignant depiction of the old man of the sea and in the artist's deliberate retention of traces left by the gouge that cut the block".¹ 

The woodblocks, originally designed, cut, and printed by Yamamoto, were reportedly reprinted at the behest of sōsaku hanga collector and former U.S. Army accounting officer Oliver Statler (1915-2002) for a Japanese print exhibition held at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in June 1960.² The resulting memorial edition or "Hashimoto edition", of which this print is believed to have been a part, was printed with the original woodblocks by Hashimoto Okiie (1899-1993) in a limited run of thirty (other sources say forty) prints, all of which apparently sold out at the AIC.³ 

One leaf, woodblock-printed on one side, complete. Minor browning and small, light stains to cream margins. Lacking explanatory slip in English usually tipped-in to verso. 31.5 x 27.3 cm.

1. Yamamoto, Kanae. 1906. Fisherman. Cleveland Museum of Art. Accessed September 16, 2025. https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1960.122.

2. Chō, Ryōta 張諒太. "木口木版印刷から見る《漁夫》: 「濃淡」を複製する木口彫刻技術と《漁夫》の「刀線」". 京都精華大学紀要 53 (2019): 301-322.

3. Ibid.

[Gyofu (Fisherman)]
Price: $2,500.00 (USD)