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Meiji prints

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	Design:	Yamamoto Shōun (1870-1965)
	Print title:	Moon rise
	Album/series title:	Kodomo Asobi (Children playing)
	Size:	20.1 x 30.1 cm (ōban)
	Original woodblock print
	Photography:	Jacques Commandeur

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Enlargement

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Special effects: embossed fabric printing (nuno-me-zuri) on the kimono of the boy on the left; deep embossing (kara-zuri) on the kimono of the boy in the middle; embossed (kara-zuri) Japanese pampas grass in the full moon (not visible in my photograph).

This print has no vertical fold in the middle, indicating that it was issued separately and not as part of an orihon (i.e., folding book).

Artist’s signature in bottom right print area:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
昇	shō	rise
雲	un	cloud	Shōun

Series title in right margin:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
子	ko	child
供	tomo	serve
あ	a
そ	so
び	bi	play	Children playing

Followed by print title:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
月	yuki	moon
の	no	’s
出	de(ru)	come out	Moon rise

Printing and publishing dates in left margin:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
明	mei	light	Printed in the
治	ji	government	Meiji era,
四	yon	three
十	jū	ten
年	nen	year	the 40th year (= 1907),
三	san	three
月	gatsu	month	the 3rd month (= March),
廿	nijū	twenty
五	go	five
日	nichi	day	the 25th day.
印	in	stamp
刷	satsu	print
今	kon	now	Published in
年	nen	year	the same year,
四	yon	four
月	gatsu	month	March,
一
日	tsuitachi	the first day
発	hatsu	emit
行	kō	go	the first day.

Followed by the publisher’s address, name and telephone number:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
画	ga	drawing
作	saku	make
印	in	stamp
刷	satsu	print
兼	ken	combine
発	hatsu	emit
行	kō	go	Painter, printer,
者	sha	person	and publisher,
東	tō	east
京	kyō	capital	Tokyo city,
日	ni	sun
本	hon	origin
橋	hashi	brdge
区	ku	district	Nihonbashi district,
吉	yoshi	good luck
川	kawa	river
町	chō	quarter	Yoshikawa quarter,
二	ni	two
番	ban	number
地	chi	earth, land	number 2,
松	matsu	pine
木	ki	tree
平	hei	level
吉	kichi	good luck	Matsuki Heikichi,
電	den	electricity
話	wa	conversation
二	ni	two
千	sen	thousand
二	ni	two
百	hyaku	hundred
八	hachi	eight
十	jū	ten
六	roku	six
番	ban	number	telephone number: 2286.

Name and address of the publisher in romaji in left bottom margin: “Sold by Daikokaya, H. Matsuki, No. 2, Yoshikawa-cho, Ryogoku, Tokyo, Japan.”

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References

• Merritt, Helen, and Yamada, Nanako (1992). Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900 - 1975. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

• Ōta Memorial Museum of Art (2006). Yamamoto Shoun. Special Exhibition Collection of the Museum of Art, Kochi. Tokyo: Ōta Memorial Museum of Art.

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Provenance: Artelino