Νιφάδες Χιονιού από Παιώνια • Torii Kotondo • Ξυλογραφία Ιαπωνίας • Shin-Hanga - Ιαπωνία - 20th century

TORII KOTONDO (1900–1976)
Botan Yuki (牡丹雪) — "Peony Snowflakes"
From: Onna Jūnidai (Twelve Aspects of Women)
Original design: Shōwa 4 (1929) — this impression: Ishu Kankōkai, c. 1976–1978
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CONDITION

Excellent. A fresh, fully saturated impression with all the technical highlights of this design intact.

Printed on superb-quality handmade washi with full deckled edges and a wonderful, substantial hand-feel. The unprinted margins show a gentle, even cream-warm patina from undisturbed archival storage — the quiet tonal depth that only time produces on good washi, and that collectors specifically prize as evidence of original, unaltered condition. There is a toning/soiling spot on the backside.

Never framed, never light-exposed. All seals and credits bright and cleanly struck.

Sheet: c. 33 × 48.3 cm.

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THE DESIGN

A woman sits quietly indoors on a winter evening, her chin resting on her clasped hands, her gaze drifting to the left — not looking at the snow, but lost in thought somewhere beyond it. She wears a plain black haori over layered garments whose edges show in glimpses of striped fabric, red cross-hatching, and soft blue at the collar. Beneath her, a richly patterned futon cover in the classic asa-no-ha (hemp-leaf) design spreads across the lower third of the composition in bold red and blue — the most chromatic area of the print, and the visual anchor that grounds the figure.

Behind her, a shōji-framed window opens onto a winter landscape: snow falling softly over distant water and low hills, rendered in muted greys and pale blue. The title, Botan Yuki — literally "peony snowflakes" — refers to the large, wet, petal-like snowflakes of a heavy winter fall, a poetic seasonal term with deep associations in Japanese literature.

Kotondo divides the composition into three distinct registers. The lower zone is textile — dense, geometric, saturated with colour. The middle is figure — the still black mass of the haori, the pale skin of her face and hands, her inward gaze. The upper zone is landscape — open, atmospheric, dissolving into snowfall. The effect is layered warmth against cold, interior stillness against exterior motion, and the woman is the pivot between them: sheltered but contemplative, present but elsewhere.
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PRESENTATION & STORAGE

The print is housed in a modern archival conservation folder of our own preparation.

The original Ishu Kankōkai presentation folders — both the inner viewing folder with windowed mat and the outer protective folder bearing the series and print titles in Japanese — will of course be included with the shipment, as they are part of the publication and belong with the print.

Our recommendation, however, is to keep the print stored in the modern conservation folder we provide and to retain the original folders separately as documentation. The vintage paper folders, while beautifully made, are now nearly fifty years old and no longer offer the same protection against humidity and acidity that a contemporary archival housing does. Following this approach preserves both the print and the originality of the publisher's housing.