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River Opening Festival at Ryogoku

Artist Koizumi Kishio

Printerprinted by Koizumi Kishio

DateShowa 10, 1935

Mediumwoodblock print; ink and color on paper

Dimensions39.8 x 30.5 cm (15 11/16 x 12 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineHelen Sagoff Slosberg Fund

Terms

Object number1998.55

Label TextThe rough line quality that makes the viewer conscious of the gouges used to cut the block and the bright color combinations fo this self-carved, self-printed image give it a strickingly modern look. A comparison with Hiroshige's rendering of fireworks at the Ryogoku Bridge (pl. 12) makes clear the visual differences in carving and printing between the collaborative and artist-executed methods of woodblock printmaking. In Koizumi's print, the viewer is part of the crowd standing on the shore to watch the annual Kawabiraki ("the opening of the river"). The spectator's clothing captures the mixture of old and new that exists in Japan even today. Some women and men wear yukata, an informal thin-cotton summer kimono. Others are dressed in the latest fashions--men in straw boaters, a schoolgirl in a middy blouse, and a woman in a beret and a diamond-print blouse. The fireworks display lights up the bridge and the dome of the Kokugikan, the Sumo stadium, on the east side of the Sumida River. Koizumi joined the Creative Print movement early in the Taisho period. He learned to carve blocks at his birthplace in Shizuoka before moving to Tokyo to study painting. Supporting himself by carving illustrations for newpapers and magazines, he met Tobari Kogan (1882-1927), one of the founders of the then newly formed Japan Creative Print Association, who encouraged him to become a member. Koizumi submitted a print to the organization's first exhibition, held in January 1919. One Hundred Scenes of Greater Tokyo in the Showa Era (1928-1940) is the artist's best-known series.ProvenancePurchased from the East West Gallery, Victor, NY, Harriet B. Bancroft Fund

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