Torii Kotondo • 梳头 • 日本木版画 • 新版画 - 日本 - 20世紀

TORII KOTONDO (1900–1976)
Kamisuki (髪梳き) — "Combing the Hair"
From: Onna Jūnidai (Twelve Aspects of Women)
Original design: Shōwa 4 (1929) — this impression: Ishu Kankōkai, c. 1976–1978
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CONDITION

Outstanding. Crisp impression with the full dynamic range of the hand-carved blocks. Colors are fresh and luminous — the deep indigo bokashi background flawless, the smoky black of the hair rendered with the characteristic Kotondo depth, the soft pinks of the kimono floral motifs unfaded. Fine printing details — including the individual hair strands and the embossed nuances around the comb and hands — are perfectly preserved.

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.

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

Sheet: c. 33 × 48.3 cm.
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THE ICONIC DESIGN

Kamisuki is the single most celebrated image Torii Kotondo ever produced, and the print that secured his place in the front rank of the shin-hanga movement. A young woman, half-turned, her long black hair falling loose against a deep indigo bokashi ground, draws a boxwood comb through it with a quiet, absorbed gesture. The composition reduces the figure almost to pure design — the cascade of ink-black hair against the cream of the skin and the soft grey of the kimono — and yet the psychological mood is unmistakable: an unguarded, private moment, observed without sentimentality.

The original 1929 edition by publisher Ikeda was so frankly intimate that the Japanese authorities banned the design in 1933 on grounds of erotic suggestion — a censorship event that only confirmed its modernity and cemented its reputation. Original Ikeda impressions, struck in editions of around 100 before the keyblock was destroyed, are today among the rarest and most expensive shin-hanga prints on the market, with examples reaching well above $10,000 at international auction.

Of the roughly twenty-one bijin-ga designs Kotondo produced across his brief printmaking career (1929–1935), Kamisuki is universally cited as the defining image — the one that anchors every survey of twentieth-century Japanese beauty prints alongside Hashiguchi Goyō's own Kamisuki and Itō Shinsui's Tsuki Jūni-sugata.

THE ICONIC EDITION

This impression comes from the Ishu Kankōkai commemorative edition of Onna Jūnidai (Twelve Aspects of Women) — arguably the most prestigious modern reissue ever made of any shin-hanga series.

Authorized shortly after Kotondo's death in 1976 by his daughter, the painter Torii Setsuko, and produced by the Tokyo publisher Ishu Kankōkai (遺珠刊行会, "Society for Publishing Hidden Pearls"), the project was formally designated under Japan's Selected Preservation Techniques for Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property — one of the highest cultural-heritage designations the Japanese government confers on traditional craft.

Supervision was given to Narazaki Muneshige, then Chairman of the Japan Ukiyo-e Association and one of the foremost ukiyo-e scholars of the twentieth century, with final inspection by the artist's daughter herself. The carving and printing teams included direct lineal successors of the original 1929 workshop.

This impression carries:
- Artist signature 言人 (Kotondo) with red artist seal
- Carver credit 彫師 伊藤進 (Itō Susumu)
- Printer credit 摺師 梶川芳雄 (Kajikawa Yoshio)
- Copyright-holder seal 著作権者検印 (red Torii seal)
- Publisher inspection seal 版元検印 (red Ishu moneybag)
- Margin notation 限定摺刷 (limited edition print)
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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.