Hasegawa / Nishinomiya Japanese Scenes on "Tanzaku" Vertical, narrow prints are a by-product of traditional Japanese architecture, which offered very few solid wall surfaces. Many times, the only solid surface available for the hanging of pictures, were the structural posts which held up the roof. "Pillar prints" became a genre unto themselves and were referred to in Japanese as hashira-e or tanzaku. The design of pleasing compositions within such a constrained format is a serious challenge for the artist. Yoshimoto Gesso and Shoda Koho, the artists who designed the prints in this series, have certainly risen to this challenge and produced a wide variety of wonderful designs. This series was listed simply as 1 line item in the Hasegawa / Nishinomiya catalog, as shown in the scan above. The implication is that there were 96 separate images available. They were sold as sets of 12 prints for $3.50 per set! Please note that they are no longer available at that price. Most of the prints in my collection came to me tipped to a backing paper which was stamped with a catalog number. These numbers are recorded below, in the display of prints and seem to come sequentially soon after the set numbers (1501 through 1508). All of these prints in my possession were trimmed right to the image. It's unusual to see one with a margin. This page is starting off (in November, 2001) with less than half of the images in the complete series. If you are able to capture digital files of any images which are missing here, please let me know. Some of the prints shown here (numbered 9000+) are missing the actual Hasegawa catalog numbers. If you are aware of the correct number for these, it would be very much appreciated if you would get in touch. Gesso 1517 Gesso 1518 Gesso 1519 Gesso 1520 Gesso 1521 Gesso 1522 Gesso 1523 Gesso 1524   Gesso 1525 Gesso 1526 Gesso 1527 Gesso 1528 Koho 1529 Koho 1530 Koho 1531 Koho 1532   Koho 1533 Koho 1534 Koho 1535 Koho 1536 Koho 1537 Koho 1538 Koho 1539 Koho 1540   Koho 1541 Koho 1544 Koho 1545 Koho 1546 Koho 1547 Koho 1548 Koho 1549 Koho 1550   Koho 1551 Koho 1552 Koho 1553 Koho 1554 Koho 1555 Koho 1556 Koho 1557 Koho 1558   Koho 1559 Koho 1560 Koho 1561 Koho 1563 Koho 1564 Koho 1565 Koho 1566 Koho 1567   Koho 1568 Koho 1569 Koho 1570 Koho 1571 Koho 1572 Koho 1573 Koho 1574 Koho 1575   Koho 1576 Gesso 1577 Gesso 1578 Gesso 1579 Gesso 1580 Gesso 1581 Gesso 1582 Gesso 1583   Gesso 1584 Gesso 1586 Gesso 1587 Gesso 1589 Gesso 1590 Gesso 1591 Gesso 1592 Gesso 1593   Gesso 1594 Gesso 1596 Gesso 1598 Gesso 1600 Koho 1601 Koho 1602 Koho 1603 Koho 1604   Koho 1605 Koho 1606 Koho 1607 Koho 1608 Koho 1609 Koho 1610 Koho 1611 Koho 1612   Koho 9004 Koho 9005 Gesso 9009 Gesso 9013 Koho 9018 Gesso 9019 Gesso 9022 Gesso 9028                                   Home Copyright 2001-2014 by Marc Kahn; All Rights Reserved