Kobayashi Kiyochika, "Surugacho"

The commercial shopping district of Surugacho is shown in winter with pedestrians going about their day. The building in the background is a grand reminder of the wave of modernization sweeping through Meiji-period Japan. A lone figure from the abolished samurai class stands stoically in the composition, likely as a sentimental reminder of the social/political changes also taking place in Japan. One of Kiyochika's most striking designs rarely available in this fine of condition.

Date: 1879
Size: Oban
Publisher: Fukada Kumajiro
Condition: Some toning at margins, otherwise excellent/fine color and condition
Frame Shown: 16" x 24" x 1/2", Classic Wood, Ebony

Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) is one of Japan's Meiji-era's most important artists whose works were an amalgam of Western style painting and Japanese print design. Trained as a painter, his works are a faithful reflection of the enormous changes taking place during the modernization of Meiji-period Japan.