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Enter the Catalog of Print Images
PLEASE NOTE: This version of the catalog of Takahashi Shôtei's print images has
been discontinued, replaced by an updated version.
It is being temporarily retained on-line until June 30, 2015, at which time it will be permanently removed from shotei.com.
Any questions, please get in touch with Marc Kahn to discuss.
About the Catalog
These pages are an attempt to catalog all of Takahashi Shôtei's print images.
There are as many as 750 images to capture, and this effort may never be completed.
To my knowledge, this has never been done before for this artist.
That's why it's worth doing.
The images contained in these pages have been gathered from many sources, including books, online
galleries, and individual collectors.
The "Not Yet Available" images are for prints which have been referred to in one of my reference
books. The titles have been included; hopefully the images will show up someday.
Your help is needed
If you are able to find any new images, or to add information,
please let me know.
It would be nice to get color images of the ones which are currently in black/white.
In order to add a print to the catalog, here is what I would like to get from you:
- A digital image file (jpg is preferred) of the print which is at least 480 pixels on the longer side.
- A high resolution close-up view of the seal, title and signature.
- The dimensions of the image (not the paper) in centimeters.
- Any other information that you might have about the print.
Catalog numbering scheme
Since it is very difficult to date these prints, the numbering scheme is based on
on print size. Within print size, the order in which each print is listed in the 1936 Watanabe
catalog is used for the oban and mitsugiri-ban formats, to determine
the order in which each was added to the catalog. Otherwise, the numbering is determined upon
when the print was added to this catalog.
O-1 through O-50 are for oban (about 15" x 10") or larger prints published by Watanabe.
O-51 + are for oban or larger prints published by Fusui Gabo.
C-x are for chuban size prints (about 10" x 7").
M-x are for mitsugiri-ban size prints (about 15" x 6").
P-x are for pillar prints (about 15" x 3")
S-x are for smaller size prints.
ST-x are for smaller size prints published by Shobido Tanaka.
Detail information
Title
Titles are tricky.
There are many sources of titles, some of which are made up by people trying to describe the print.
Most of Shôtei's prints have a Japanese title above the artist's seal.
Many times, the title in Watanabe's catalog is completely different from the title on the print.
It is a problem for a cataloger to determine which title to use without being arbitrary.
This cataloger is guilty of being arbitrary.
For example, print M-56 has written in Japanese "Ugawara" above the Hiroaki seal.
Ugawara is a famous Japanese hot springs resort town.
Watanabe's catalog gives the title, "Woman returning from bath in rain".
The catalog title for this print is "Woman returning from bath".
Another example is print M-36, which has been spotted mounted to old backing paper upon which
was written "Mother and child admiring the moon". The title on the print contains the words
"sacred", "tree", and "time".
Watanabe's catalog calls it "Moon Rising at Nokizaki; a woman and girls". However, there is
only 1 child in the image.
Our catalog title for this print is "Moon Rising at Nokizaki".
Publisher
Since Shôtei published mostly with Watanabe, he is the listed as publisher for all prints
not known to have been published by Fusui Gabo or Shobido Tanaka.
Size
The sizes of margins can vary from copy to copy. Therefore, for the purposes of this catalog,
only the dimensions of the actual image is stated, not the dimensions of the paper.
The format is hh.h x ww.w where "hh.h" is the height of the print, in centimeters, and "ww.w" is
the width.
There are quite a few prints in the catalog where the dimensions are not stated on the detail page,
because a reliable measurement, of the image only, has not been obtained.
If you are able to provide measurements for any of these, please do
and they will be added to the catalog.
Year
The great majority of Shôtei's prints, even the oban ones, don't have a date.
For those that contain a printed date, it is included in the format yyyy.mm, where yyyy is the year
and mm is the month number.
For those prints which don't have a date, the only clues have been whether or not a print is included
in either of the 2 Watanabe catalogs for which I have copies.
If a print is included in the 1936 catalog, its date is listed as <= 1936 which means that the print
was originally published prior to 1936 or in that year.
If a print is not in the 1936 catalog but is in the 1951 catalog, its date is listed as >= 1936.
In compiling this catalog, I have visited many on-line galleries and gone through many books.
I have found that some of these sources are not shy at all about assigning dates to Shôtei's prints.
Unless there is some reference that they are using, of which I am not aware, I have concluded that
these dates are arbitrary guesses.
Image Sources
Andacht: "Collector's Value Guide to Japanese Woodblock Prints", Sandra Andacht, 2000
CastleFineArts.com: an on-line gallery
Chigasaki: "Tsuchiya Koitsu: Adoration of Scenery", Chigasaki Art Museum, 1999
Degener.com: an on-line gallery
Female Image: "The Female Image - 20th century prints of Japanese beauties", Hotei, 2000
FloatingWorld.com: an on-line gallery
Gallery Collects Shin Hanga: "The Gallery Collects Shin Hanga", Barry Till, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1996
Hanga.com: an on-line gallery and reference source
Hotei-Japanese-Prints.com: an on-line gallery
HuysdenEsch.com: an on-line gallery
JPAA 11/25/00: Catalog of the November 25, 2000, Japan Prints Sale #7 of the JPAA, in Tokyo
JapanesePrints.net: an on-line gallery
JapanGalleryPrints.com: on on-line gallery
Kotobuki.de: an on-line gallery and auction site
MattiaJona.com: an on-line gallery
Mita Arts: an on-line gallery
Morra-JapaneseArt.com: an on-line gallery
Mt Fuji: "Mt. Fuji - Sacred mountain of Japan", Chris Uhlenbeck, Hotei, 2000
Richard@ukiyo-e: an on-line gallery
Shin Hanga: "Shin-Hanga - New Prints in Modern Japan", Brown and Goodall-Cristante, 1996
The Asian Collection: an on-line auction company
The new wave: "The new wave - Twentieth-century Japanese prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection", Stephens, 1993
TheArtOfJapan.com: an on-line gallery
TheLocalMerchant.com: an on-line gallery
ThingsJapanese.com: an on-line gallery
Ukiyoe-Gallery.com: an on-line gallery and reference source
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