Music of Spring by Mizuno, Toshikata

A scene of a young woman playing the koto, and a samurai gentleman is seen in the upper left with an illusion of an upturning page.  A popular theme in many kuchi-e is that of unrequited or wistful distant lovers. Age: 1899   Media: Woodblock Print     Size: 8.75" x 12" Condition: Very good - as with many kuchi-e, faint fold marks. Kuchi-e were woodblock prints used as foldout frontispieces for novels or  inserts into magazines from around 1895 to 1915.  They were meant as a visual aid and as a sales promotion at the same time. In competition with Western lithographic or photo-mechanical printing techniques modern to the times, kuchi-e were usually well executed, sometimes in deluxe printing with such lavish techniques as mica or embossing.  The main subjects were bijin-ga (beautiful women), often in a Western style presaging the Taisho modern women. For more reference information on kuchi-e, please refer to: "Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints" by Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada.