Nishijima Katsuyuki – Summer Breeze

Original woodblock print, hand-signed and numbered 20/80 by the artist. First published in 2002.

The location depicted is in Shirakawa-go, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the viewer looks over a small Japanese village featuring traditional farmhouses built in a style typical of the naturally isolated region.

This woodblock print is one of the few largest works Nishijima Katsuyuki has created, and among the largest we have on offer. Producing woodblock prints of this size poses challenges for artists. While carving the woodblocks is more laborious, it is not significantly more complex; the real difficulty lies in the printing process, as the printer must apply pressure evenly over a much greater distance. Moreover, even the slightest misalignment becomes magnified at this scale, resulting in a significant deviation on the opposite end. Nishijima Katsuyuki is one of the few artists capable of working at this scale, though even he produced only a handful of designs this large.

Image size (excluding margins): 54.4 * 78.9 cm (21.4 * 31.1 in).

The print is in excellent state. There are a few very tiny spots in the margins, and a few mild foxing spots in the outer margin. The paper is slightly wavy.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

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Nishijima Katsuyuki (b. 1945) is a prolific and popular Japanese woodblock artist. He has been perfecting his art since half a century, working in the Sosaku Hanga (creative prints) style, and thus carving and printing all by himself.

He has developed a completely unique style, making his prints recognizable from across the room. Common themes are country side landscapes and city scenes. Here, the scenes do not show people or modern tools, creating a timeless beauty, where, to an extent, it is possible to imagine oneself being in the present or a century earlier just as easily.

Nishijima Katsuyuki signs his prints, but many of the designs are unnumbered. With many designs and possibly recurring editions for his unnumbered prints, it seems that it was possible for him to keep them relatively affordable.

See an overview of Nishijima Katsuyuki's woodblock prints