* Photographic paper only (without framing): ships in 3–5 business days.

＊If you choose mounting and framing: the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, so please allow 2–3 weeks for your order and be patient.

Artwork dimensions: Small size: 30 x 42 cm Medium: 50 x 72 cm

Large size: 60 x 86 cm * Please message us about other sizes.

Giclée on etching art paper Hanging method:

Every aluminum frame has a hanging wire on the back. To hang it, you can attach a 3M damage-free hook to the wall (please purchase a version rated for at least 5 kg for safety).

* The original is a woodcut, which gives the marks a rougher texture.

Artwork: “Yasaka Shrine After Snowfall”

Itō Takashi (1894–1982) was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. He studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and in the private studio of Kaburaki Kiyokata. Kaburaki was a traditional master of Japanese painting and had close ties to the print publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō. His studio later became a “talent pool” where Watanabe found promising young artists; many artists aspiring to work under Watanabe came from there.

Takashi became one of Watanabe’s artists. From the 1920s—his first work appeared in 1922—through the 1930s and into the postwar period, he created approximately 50 landscape prints for Watanabe’s publishing house. Watanabe regarded Takashi Ito as one of his “high-end” designers alongside Kawase Hasui and Ito Shinsui; most of their works were published in oban or larger formats.

Takashi’s landscape prints have a strong sense of solitary romance, recalling 19th-century German paintings and prints. Like Kawase Hasui, he rarely included many figures in his compositions, giving the works an atmosphere that feels both mysterious and melancholy. Rather than the flat, single-color areas common in ukiyo-e, Takashi Ito’s prints make extensive use of color gradation, producing an effect closer to painting than to traditional woodblock printing. Achieving this effect requires highly skilled carvers and printers working together.

“Japanese Vintage Print Series: Actual Photographs of the Printed Works”

Discover Japanese woodblock prints:

Production process and division of responsibilities

1. Artist (eshi) Responsible for drawing the original design.

Provides the overall composition and the design of the figures and landscape.

For example: Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Kawase Hasui.

2. Publisher (hanmoto)

The heart of the entire team, akin to a “producer + distributor.”

Funded and planned the work, determined its theme, and collaborated with the artist.

Hire carvers and printers, and coordinate the schedule and quality.

Responsible for sales and promotion, and for deciding the size of the edition.

For example: Shozaburo Watanabe of the shin-hanga movement. 3. Block carver (horishi)

Transfer the artist’s original drawing onto a woodblock for carving.

Each color requires a dedicated woodblock.

The technical demands are extremely high: precision down to the millimeter is required, or the overprinted colors will be misaligned.

4. Printer (surishi)

Woodblocks and pigments are used to print the image layer by layer onto washi paper.

Responsible for color gradation, blending, and light-and-shadow effects.

The level of technical skill directly affects the work’s final appearance.