About“Chigusa Soun”

Chigusa Soun (1873-1944) was a Japanese painter active in Kyoto. He studied Japanese painting under Takeuchi Seiho and Western painting under Asai Chu. While winning numerous awards as a Japanese-style painter He innovated Japanese painting by adopting Western techniques. He also taught at art schools and worked as an art educator.　

About“Tsuchiya Rakuzan”

Rakuzan was born in Kyoto. When he was young, he studied under Takeuchi Seiho, a pioneer of modern Japanese painting and a representative painter of Kyoto painting. Woodblock prints of precise and complex colors were produced at the Rakuzan workshop in the 1920s~1940s and sold mainly to overseas markets. The woodblock prints of Rakuzan have been reprinted using the same woodblock prints in recent years, but this print is a valuable first edition.