Two lovely vintage Japanese woodblock prints by the respected publisher Daiichi Kogei han (seal in left margins 第一巧芸版 ). Both prints are sympathetic to the originals by one of the most well-known of the ukiyo-e artists Kitagawa Utamaro, and are from his acclaimed series ‘Ten Types in the Physiognomic Study of Women’ (1792-93). The two prints are fine impressions enhanced with sliver mica ground and are both beautifully presented in their studio frames. The main design is of the famous teahouse waitress ‘Naniwaya Okita’ and is in fine condition with no problems to note. The second design entitled 'Young woman blowing a popen’ has moderate mat burn and mild foxing, yet only when viewed out of its frame. They really are two lovely prints in their frames and I have priced them to sell. I will send premium tracked and signed-for. UK buyers please note that you may be subject to additional VAT.

Further information: Virtually nothing is known of Utamaro’s life, other than being a former pupil of Sekien and founder of the Kitagawa school. Utamaro had a long relationship with publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo (Tsutaju), himself born illegitimately in the Yoshiwara and adopted by the Kitagawas. The symbiosis of Utamaro’s and Tsutaju’s relationship with the pleasure quarters isn’t lost on the fact that around 30% of Utamaro’s approximate 1,900 designs for sheet prints relate to said subject. Utamaro was without question a leader in bijinga due to his transformation of the styles of Kiyonaga and Shigemasa, though also influenced by Shunsho and Masanobu: Utamaro essentially owed his greatest debt to Kiyonaga in building on his boldly graceful ‘tall ladies’ and lifelike women, by sublimely adding strong elements of sensual beauty and veiled, non-explicit eroticism based on his own intuitive grasp of the female psyche. Utamaro was unequalled at the time in his technical skill and verve and famed for using mica backgrounds, and for his ¾ bust portraits, or okubi-e of beautiful, single women and/or courtesans, in which the mica is said to be suggestive of mirrors, self-absorption, even narcissism. His okubi-e are not physiognomic portraits; they are perfect Utamaro-style models reflecting famous women with definitely a new compositional sense of emotional, even sexual engagement… where is found the true passion and sophistication of his art. By 1784, Utamaro was ranked fifth of the five great illustrators of ukiyo-e, after Shigemasa, Shunsho, Kiyonaga and Koryusai. He was, though, one of the most profound and influential artists of the entire print tradition. Prolific in single sheets, Utamaro also produced many diptychs and triptychs and set the kyokabon (crazy verse books) standard with pure draftsmanship and almost scientific examples, as in the acclaimed masterpiece ‘A Picture-book of Selected Insects’(1788). Moreover, his exquisite shunpon of 1788 entitled ‘Utamakura’, otherwise Poem of the Pillow, is one of the most celebrated albums of erotica and one of the finest publications in ukiyo-e. After 1791, Utamaro inevitably concentrates on single sheet bijin ‘portraiture’ prints in order to recoup the financial losses suffered due to the censorship, as this type was proving a more profitable market. The happy consequence of the censorship edicts of the Kansei Reforms was the production of the acclaimed ‘Ten Types in the Physiognomic Study of Women’, which totals nine images combined in two sets portraying different types and personalities, such as ‘light-hearted’ and ‘domestic’ types, alongside renowned beauties of Edo (Yujo). Utamaro’s work after 1804 is cited as having declined following his punishment for breaching the censorship; in that he was manacled for fifty days with others and died two years later in 1806 at the age of fifty-three. Utamaro gave to ukiyo-e decadent and realistic expression, whereby his art is regarded as an apotheosis of the natural and the ugly. His demise essentially signalled the end of the great period of figurework, and though it may be difficult to sometimes distinguish between him in his last years and his successor, from thereon the works of Utamaro II equals not the great master, whose fame and reverence is only perhaps second to Hokusai.