'Descending Geese over a Full Moon' c1925
This very handsome woodblock print depicts geese in flight over a full moon with silhouetted trees below. The bokashi shading in this print is exceptional, with perfect gradation of colors. There are no seals present, but this print is well documented as Hiroshige IV's work. The print is matted under silk brocade linen mats with an overlay mat in ivory. It is in good condition, not examined out of the frame. The woodblock sight size measures 15" x 6".  It is in a very nice wood gold tone frame measuring 20" x 12".           P75218            $295.00
Kiichiro Kikuchi was a friend of a man named Shimizu who was closely related to the House of Ando and the Utagawa School (after Ando Utagawa Hiroshige, Japan's prized landscape artist of the early to mid-19th century). Shimizu worked closely with Hiroshige III. Kikuchi succeeded Hiroshige III as Hiroshige IV in December 1911. Shimizu bestowed the Ando seals to Kikuchi at that time. Kikuchi was born in 1848, and was quite active in the 1920s-30s, but no other information is available beyond the 1930s. In the late 19th century he taught calligraphy at his home at Hon-Shirokanecho, Nihonbashi. He succeeded to the title of Hiroshige in order to keep the family from becoming extinct. Thus he inherited the family tablet for the House of Ando.