Famous Places in Tokyo: Foreigners’ Houses in Tsukiji (Tokyo meisho zue: Tsukiji ijinkan)
Signed Hiroshige hitsu within the red cartouche, publisher’s seal on the lower left margin, Tori Ni Marutetsu (Kobayashi Tetsujiro), with date seal, Tori-ni (year of the rooster [1873], 2nd month), 1873
oban tate-e 13 3/4 by 9 3/8 in., 35 by 23.7 cm
References:
Edo-Tokyo Museum, collection no. 89200826
National Museum of Japanese History, accession no. H-22-2-56
Tokyo Metropolitan Library, call no. 0422-C27
Self-carved, self-printed; titled and signed at lower right, Suiren, Chizuko, with red artist’s seal Chizuko; titled and signed in pencil on the bottom margin, Suiren asobu, Chizuko Yoshida, ca. 1985
20 3/4 by 16 1/4 in., 52.8 by 41.2 cm
In 1985 a newly established high-end mail order company, IEI (Imperial Enterprises Inc.) commissioned a series of large format floral prints that were marketed as luxury collectibles, indicating that the editions were limited to only 20 to 40 available impressions at the time, with Chizuko perhaps retaining the other half of the edition. Two years later the company discontinued the project, and Chizuko likewise put aside the remaining impressions.
Red and White Plum with Oisu (Kobai hakubai ni utau)
Self-carved, self-printed; titled and signed at lower right, Ume, Chizuko, with red artist’s seal Chizuko, titled, signed and dated in pencil on the bottom margin, Kobai hakubai ni utau, a.p. (artist’s proof), Chizuko Yoshida 1985
20 5/8 by 16 1/8 in., 52.3 by 41 cm
In 1985 a newly established high-end mail order company, IEI (Imperial Enterprises Inc.) commissioned a series of large format floral prints that were marketed as luxury collectibles, indicating that the editions were limited to only 20 to 40 available impressions at the time, with Chizuko perhaps retaining the other half of the edition. Two years later the company discontinued the project, and Chizuko likewise put aside the remaining impressions.
One Hundred Views of Tokyo, Message to the 21st Century: View of Western Suburb of the Metropolis in the Rainy Season (Tokyo Hyakkei Nijusseiki e no Messeji: Bou shutoseikou, baiu)
Photographic zinc plate with self-carved and self-printed color woodblocks; numbered, titled, signed and dated in pencil on the bottom margin, bou shutoseikou, baiu, Chizuko Yoshida ’95, 1995
25 1/8 by 17 5/8 in., 63.7 by 44.9 cm
This print is no. 52 in collaborative series titled, One Hundred Views of Tokyo, Message to the 21st Century, a decade-long project featuring 100 prints from 100 artists, which was conceived and published by the Japan Print Association starting in 1989. This ambitious series takes inspiration from early Tokyo-themed series, including the great landscape print series illustrating views of Edo in the mid-19th century by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), and the 1920s collaborative series, Shin Tokyo Hyakkei, and One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo During Showa issued in the 1920s-30s by Kishio Koizumi (1893-1945), both depicting the resurgence of Tokyo after the devastating 1923 Kanto Earthquake and fire. By following these traditions, the series aimed to serve as a witness to time, documenting the ever-changing international megalopolis that is Tokyo, and a message for the future.
Beginning in 1989, and every year for ten years, ten different print artists contributed ten designs to the portfolio, which was completed in 2000. The roster of participants included leading printmakers of their time as well as promising young talent who benefited from the exposure of being associated with other prestigious artists. Four members of the Yoshida family produced works for the series: Hodaka Yoshida (1926-1995) in the inaugural year of 1989 with Sukiya-bashi Police Box, the following year his older brother Toshi Yoshida (1911-1995) added Tokyo Port Wild-Bird Park, and his wife Chizuko with this work in 1995, and their daughter Ayomi Yoshida (b. 1958) two years later with Kanda River, Around Inokashira in 1997. At its conception, the artists planned to produce editions limited to 100 impressions, but after the burst of the bubble economy the following year, the project was scaled back significantly and only 10 complete numbered sets were assembled. More established artists, such as the members of the Yoshida family, had the financial wherewithal and market their editions, and some artists exchanged prints with each other, resulting in an unknown number of possibly complete or incomplete sets (most likely still in the hands of the artists or their families).
Provenance:
Yoshida Family Collection
References:
Kathryn Tolbert, A Century’s View: The Print in Japan, International Herald Tribune, April 17, 1999
Art Institute of Chicago, accession no. 2019.719.52, (and the complete set)
The British Museum, museum no. 2006,0220,0.52 (and the complete set)
(inv. no. C-4248)
This impression reserved, another impression available to order.
Travels with the Master: El Capitan
(Meishou to no tabi: Erukyapitan)
Signed in pencil at bottom right margin, Paul BINNIE, the series title on the upper left margin, Meishou To No Tabi, followed by the print title Erukyapitan, numbered on the bottom left margin 1/100, 2025
dai oban tate-e 18 7/8 by 13 1/2 in., 48 by 34.2 cm
This large oban print of El Capitan, a famous cliff within Yosemite Valley in California, is the ninth design in Paul Binnie’s ongoing series, Travels with the Master (Meisho to no Tabi), through which Binnie revisits sites depicted by respected Japanese painter and printmaker Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950). Yoshida visited Yosemite in 1924 and painted the study that was the basis for his woodblock print released in 1925. Exactly a century later, Binnie is releasing his woodblock print of the same subject, from a different vantage point, to coincide with his landscape retrospective exhibition, May Show: Binnie Meisho, held here at Scholten Japanese Art in May 2025.
Utilizing 34 colors printed from hand-carved cherry wood and other wood blocks, Binnie depicts the cliff from the south-west, near the Merced River in the foreground, whereas Yoshida viewed the cliff from further east, giving a profile view of the rock. Binnie depicts the warm afternoon light of a September day, with much of the foreground in shadow but the upper cliff in warm sunlight and colorful reflections in the river, while Yoshida represented morning, with the light from behind the artist from the East.
As usual with this series and most of Binnie’s woodblock prints, this print was produced in an edition limited to only 100 impressions.
Oil on canvas; signed at lower right, BINNIE, 1997
painting 21 by 26 in., 53.3 by 66 cm
frame 25 1/2 by 30 in., 64.77 by 76.2 cm
This was painted in front of the oldest surviving Kabuki theater, the Konpira-za Theater (also known as the Kanamaru-za theater) built in 1835 in the town of Kotohira on the island of Shikoku. The theater has had a long and colorful history, including being used as a movie theater and later abandoned, but it was fully restored in 1976, twenty-one years before Binnie painted this in 1997. A small kitten on the gravel forecourt provided a focal point, as well as the playful title.
This was a large private garden in Yamagata, part of what was once an extensive farm with fruit trees, flowers and a koi pond quite near the house, decorated with stone lanterns. Binnie visited this garden almost annually from 1994 to 1998.
A Journey to the Waterfalls in All the Provinces: Kiyotaki Kannon Waterfall at Sakanoshita on the Tokaido
(Shokoku Taki Meguri: Tokaido Sakanoshita Kiyotaki Kannon)
printed with blue outline block; signed zen Hokusai Iitsu hitsu, with censor’s seal kiwame, publisher’s seal Eijudo (Nishimuraya Yohachi), ca. early 1833
oban tate-e 14 3/4 by 9 7/8 in., 37.4 by 25.2 cm
This print is from a series of only eight designs which was published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo), likely beginning in early 1833. The series is first mentioned in an advertisement found in the back of a book published around the time of the New Year in 1833. The bold compositions utilize shades of blue extensively, likely inspired by the tremendous success of Hokusai’s most celebrated series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, produced by the same publisher, Nishimuraya Yohachi beginning around 1830. In the same manner as the Thirty-Six Views series, blue pigment was used for the keyblock outlines on the waterfall series, the only vertical oban series designed by Hokusai.
As is not unusual for Hokusai, his signature style varies within the series, four designs, Aoigaoka, Yoro, Kirifuri and this one, Kiyotaki, have signatures which begin with the ‘I’ of ‘Iitsu’ written in formal kaisho script, while the signature on the remaining four works utilize shoso script. In Hokusai: Beyond The Great Wave, Asano Shugo theorizes that the ‘kaisho’ group were published around the New Year of 1833, slightly earlier than ‘sosho’ group.
Some of the compositions in the waterfal series appear to be based on Hokusai’s personal observations, while others were likely adapted from illustrated gazetters known as meisho zue (lit. ‘popular views’). In the late 17th century stone images of three dieties, Amida Buddha, Eleven-Headed Kannon, and Enmei Jizo were all enshrined in a cave located beside the falls, which became a destination for pilgrims seeking its miraculous powers. Hokusai’s depiction of this location, the Kiyotaki Kannon waterfall, is faithful to the topography of the sacred site with its narrow stream falling down the cliff face.
Exhibited: Near and Far: Landscapes by Japanese Artists, The Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, Hanford, California, January 6 – April 20, 2013
References:
Matthi Forrer, Hokusai: Prints and Drawings, 1991, no. 44
Gian Carlo Calza, Hokusai: Il vecchio pazzo per la pittura, 1999, p. 342, no. V.48.2
Gian Carlo Calza, Hokusai, 2003, p. 378, no. VI.12.3 (similar to this example)
Timothy Clark, ed., Hokusai: Byond the Great Wave, 2017, p. 142 (Asano Shugo re: series)
Rossella Menegazzo, ed., Hokusai: The Master’s Legacy, 2017, p. 66, no. 1.3
Seiji Nagata, Hokusai Updated, 2019, p. 247, no. 429
Sarah E. Thompson, Hokusai’s Landscapes: The Complete Series, 2019. pp. 94-95, no. 51 (MFA, Boston, 21.6684)
Andreas Marks, Hokusai, 2024, p. 547 (MET, JP2926)
The British Museum, Morrison Collection, no. 1906,1220,0.554; and 1937,0710,0.194
Honolulu Museum of Art, Michener Collection, object no. 19473 Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession nos. JP1083 (similar to this example); JP2926; and JP1428
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bigelow Collection, no. 11.25223; and Spaulding Collection, no. 21.6684 (both with similar coloration to this example)
The Hundred Poems [By the Hundred Poets] as Told by the Nurse: Empress Jito
(Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki: Jito Tenno)
signed Saki no Hokusai Manji, with censor’s seal kiwame (approved), and publisher’s seal Eijudo (Eijudo Hibino of Nishimuraya Yohachi), ca. 1835-36
oban yoko-e 10 1/4 by 14 7/8 in., 25.9 by 37.7 cm
This is the second design from Hokusai’s uncompleted series, The Hundred Poems as Told by the Nurse, which was the last major single sheet series Hokusai designed before he devoted his remaining years primarily to painting commissions. Of the intended series of one hundred, only twenty-seven prints are known to have been completed; an additional sixty-four designs survive in the form of preparatory drawings. The preparatory drawing for this design is
The publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi I (b. ca. 1720) originally commissioned and began publishing the series, but for unknown reasons, his shop, Eijudo, ceased to exist by late 1835. After issuing only five prints with the Eijudo seal in the spring of 1835, the series was then taken over by the publisher Ise Sanjiro’s firm, Iseri. The remaining twenty-two published prints bear a different seal which also can be read Eijudo, an intriguing nod to the apparently defunct (or perhaps acquired) Eijudo firm.
Hokusai based the series on the well-known anthology of poems, the Hyakunin Isshu (A Hundred Poems by a Hundred Poets), compiled by the poet Fujiwara no Teika in 1235. The collected verse were (and continue to be) familiar to most Japanese in some format, including a shell matching games (similar to the Western game known as ‘concentration’), where the challenge was to match the poet painted on the interior of one shell to their verse painted on another. Hokusai approaches the poems from the perspective of an uneducated wet-nurse, allowing for seemingly simple minded mistakes or misinterpretations which add a lighthearted quality to his renditions.
This print features a poem in the cartouche by the Empress Jito Tenno (645-703), the daughter of the Emperor Tenji Tenno (626-672, the author of the poem utilized in the first print from the series). Empress Jito was the third female empress of Japan who reigned from 686 until 697.
Haru sugite
Natsu kinekerashi
Shirotae no
Koromo hosu cho
Ama-no-kaguyama
Spring, it seems, has passed
And the summer come again
For the silk-white robes
So ’tis said, are spread to dry
On the “Mount of Heaven’s Perfume”
The Mount of Heaven refers to a hill near Nara which was thought to be in the shape of a perfume bottle. Traditionally, locals would wash their clothes in early spring and spread them on the slopes to dry. Hokusai’s composition illustrates the villagers carrying bundles of clothing to be washed in the flowing river, while two villagers head towards the hill to the left with freshly washed ‘pure white’ garments hanging from a pole suspended between them. Peter Morse’s interpretation of Hokusai’s visual pun is found in the distance where tall racks are apparently drying flax fibers, a step in linen production after soaking raw flax in water in order to rot away the woody stalk exterior. In the last line of the poem, the word ama can be read as heaven or flax, and kagu is any sort of aroma; hence Ama-no-kaguyama could either be read as ‘Mount of Heaven’s Perfume,’ or, ‘the stench of flax.’
Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido: Station 29, Hamamatsu, Winter Scene
(Tokaido Gojusan Tsuji no Uchi: Hamamatsu, fuyugare no zu)
signed Hiroshige ga with publisher’s seal Hoeido (Takenouchi Magohachi), and censor’s seal kiwame (approved) on the left-hand margin, flower shaped collector’s seal Naka on verso, ca. 1832-33
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Kumano Junisha Shrine, Popularly Known as Juniso
(Meisho Edo hyakkei: Tsunohazu Kumano Junisha zokusho Juniso)
signed Hiroshige hitsu, with publisher’s seal on lower left margin, Shitaya shinkuro Uo-Ei (Uoya Eikichi), censor’s seal aratame (examined), and date seal Ryu-shichi (year of the dragon [1856], 7th lunar month)
oban tate-e 14 5/8 by 10 1/8 in., 37.3 by 25.6 cm
References:
Henry D. Smith II, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Illustrations by Hiroshige, George Braziller & Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1986, no. 50 HIROSHIGE: A James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1991, p.104, no. IV-32-E
Yamaguchi Keizaburo, Meihin Soroimono Ukiyo-e, Vol. X: Hiroshige I, 1991, no. 95
Mikhail USPENSKY, One Hundred Views of Edo by Ando Hiroshige, 1997, p. 120, no. 50
Melanie Trede and Lorenz Bichler, Hiroshige: One Hundred Views of Edo, 2007, p. 150, no. 50
Goto Kenichiro, Kubo Tsunehiko and Sons Collection, Second Term: Ukiyo-e Hanga Edo-e Hen, 2009, p. 126, no. 97-64
Samuel C. Morse, Reinventing Tokyo: Japan’s Largest City in the Artistic Imagination, Mead Art Museum & Anherst College, 2012, p. 67, no. 7
Ichikawa Shinya, The Hara Yasusaburo Collection: HIROSHIGE VIVID Exhibition Catalogue, 2016, p. 285, no. II-102
Art Institute of Chicago, accession nos. 1939.1414, and 1939.1470 The British Museum, registration no. 1906,1220,0.684
Chazen Museum of Art, John H. Van Vleck Collection, accession no. 1980.1644
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (mfa.org), accession nos. 11.16680, 11.35820, 11.36876.35, 11.45637, 21.9475
Meiji Era Prints
From a Private New York Collection
Summer 2025 145 West 58th St, Ste 6D, NYC
We are pleased to announce the addition of a selection of Meiji era prints recently added to our website from a private collection assembled by a prominent American defense attorney who was one of the first foreigners to pass the Japanese bar exam and co-founded a law firm in Tokyo, where he lived the rest of his life. The trove passed to his son who shared his father’s appreciation of Yokohama and Meiji Period prints and continued to curate the collection both here in New York and abroad.
The Meiji Period (1866-1912) was an era of tremendous transformation in Japan following the Meiji Restoration, which ended the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and ‘restored’ the rule of the Emperor Mutsuhito (1852-1912, posthumously named Emperor Meiji) and a centralized government. The name of the era, Meiji, meaning “enlightened rule” signified Japan deliberate emergence from an isolationist and feudal society to a modern and industrialized nation, eager to catch up with Western powers of the time.
In 1853 Japan was opened up to the West by Commodore Matthew Perry (1794-1858), ending the country’s 220 year isolation policy. Western technologies in all aspects of life were quickly implemented, and these advancements can be seen in the prints that were produced in this era; both in subject matter depicted and the printmaking process itself. Artists inspired by readily available brilliant synthetic dyes and the dynamic growth of Tokyo and Yokohama produced urban scenes populated with foreigners and locals bustling together among new types of architecture and methods of transportation. Likewise, the techniques utilized evolved as some artists began to mimic etching methods found in Western printmaking – this can be particularly be seen in works by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915).
The declaration of war with China in 1894 stimulated a burst of productivity in the woodblock print market, with Kiyochika in particular leading the charge. Depictions of battles from the front, often in triptych format, became highly popular with the print-buying public, and served as a way to promote national pride and support for the war effort. Although many of the war prints illustrated new explosive weapons and modern technologies, the artists themselves did not see these events first-hand, but rather based their compositions on a combination of traditional ukiyo-e portrayals of warrior subjects and their own imaginations.
To explore this extraordinary collection, click here.
Chizuko Yoshida: A Vibrant Legacy
Summer 2025
We are honored to announce the gallery’s most recent works by Chizuko Yoshida (1924-2017) received from the Yoshida Family Collection and available now on our website.
Before joining the Yoshida family by marriage to the younger son Hodaka, Chizuko Inoue lived a life immersed in the arts. From a young age she studied music, played the violin, and performed in competitive dance including tap, ballet and Japanese dances. After graduating from the Sato Girl’s High School in Tokyo in 1941, Chizuko studied traditional Western-style realism including life drawing at the Hongo Art Institute, and oil painting privately in the studio of Kitaoka Fumio (1918-2007) who was also a woodblock printmaker. In the late 1940s, Chizuko joined a group of avant-garde artists who called themselves the Century Society (Seiki no kai) and eventually moved away from academic realism and began painting abstract compositions.
In 1956, Chizuko co-founded the Joryu Hanga Kyokai (Women’s Printmakers Association), together with nine other printmakers including Minami Keiko (1911-2004), Iwami Reika (1927-2020), Enokido Maki (b. 1938), Shishido Tokuko (b. 1930), and Kobayashi Donge (b. 1926). Active through 1965, the group provided a crucial vehicle for talented female printmakers to showcase their work. From 1987 onward, Chizuko held solo and group exhibitions both in Japan and abroad.
In the mid-1980s Chizuko received large commissions from corporate patrons. A major construction company funded a series of butterfly-themed designs corresponding to the seasons. The designs were issued in limited editions of 100 numbered impressions and were dispersed through the corporation for display in various locations such as hotels and office buildings. As the entire editions were purchased by the company, Chizuko retained only 10 or 15 artist’s proofs of each design, as such only proofs were ever available directly from the artist.
The following year in 1985 a newly established high-end mail order company commissioned a series of larger format butterfly and floral prints that were marketed as luxury collectibles, indicating that the editions were limited to only 20 to 40 available impressions, with Chizuko perhaps retaining the other half of the edition.
Later in her career, Chizuko blended zinc-plate photoetching with traditional woodblock printing techniques. Chizuko contributed this work to the prestigious collaborative series, One Hundred Views of Tokyo, Message to the 21st Century, a decade-long project featuring 100 prints from 100 artists, which was conceived and published by the Japan Print Association starting in 1989.
To explore these remarkable works, view them on the ‘Recent Editions’ page by clicking here.
PAST RECENT EXHIBITION
Binnie Meisho
May 1 – 30, 2025
We are pleased to present Binnie Meisho, an exhibition of landscape woodblock prints and paintings by Paul Binnie, celebrating the release of El Capitan, the latest addition to his ongoing series Travels with the Master, opening May 1 through 30.
Binnie Meisho includes over 70 landscape oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and woodblock prints, featuring scenes that Binnie depicted from his many travels; including his years in Japan where he honed his woodblock printmaking practice, to famous sites in the US and Europe that he visited while following in the footsteps of his artistic mentor, Hiroshi Yoshida for his Travels with the Master series, to images of his homeland, Scotland, and Black’s Beach in San Diego, California, where he now resides.
Explore the full collection of these exceptional works online now by clicking here.
Recent Additions Available
We are constantly updating our inventory with new prints. To browse for works by artist, or search by title, series or keyword, visit our Recent Additions here.
Past Exhibitions
Explore our past exhibitions online—each one a unique journey through exceptional art and craftsmanship. Discover them all here.
About the Gallery
Scholten Japanese Art is a private gallery specializing in Japanese woodblock prints and paintings. We offer ukiyo-e from the 18th to 20th centuries, including shin hanga, sosaku hanga, and Japanese-style woodblock prints produced by Western artists. Located in a spacious suite in the old Meurice Hotel, just steps from Central Park South, we enjoy meeting with visitors one on one in order to best learn about your interests and share the collection with you.
We opened its doors September 2000 in a renovated townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side. In May of 2003, Scholten moved to a private suite in the old Meurice Hotel located on 58th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. We initially planned to stay in midtown temporarily, however, we were pleasantly surprised to find the central location in the heart of Manhattan offers advantages in accessibility for both local collectors (who frequently have business in the area) and proximity to numerous hotels for out-of-town visitors. In 2009 we decided to expand to a larger space in the same building which was renovated to provide more exhibition space as well as a separate ‘Print Room’ devoted to our library and large inventory of woodblock prints. We organize at least two public exhibitions every year during Asia Week (both March and September), but we always have a selection of prints and paintings on view throughout the year.
