'The Great Bridge at Matsue'
This lovely woodblock print depicts a scene in which pedestrians cross two bridges in a heavy snowstorm, the women under Japanese snow umbrellas and wearing traditional kimonos. This very scarce woodblock print's sight size is 9.5" high by 14" wide. It is handsomely framed in a simple black wood frame measuring 14" x 18.5". It bears Kazuma's cipher and seal. This print was first produced in 1924. This edition by Watanabe Publishers dates to c1930. This print is in very good condition, with mild toning, and trimmed margins.       P65738                 $995.00
Oda Kazuma made significant contributions to both the shin hanga and sosaku hanga movements. He first studied painting with Kawamura Kiyoo and learned lithography from Kaneko Masajiro. Oda's brother, a lithograph technician in Osaka, was also important to his early education. Throughout his life, Oda worked primarily as a lithographer, although occasionally he carved and printed his own woodblock prints. In 1924, Oda collaborated with the shin hanga publisher Watanabe Shozaburo on a small series of woodblock prints. These designs were primarily Japanese landscapes with a nostalgic feeling similar to work by Hiroshi Yoshida and Kawase Hasui, but in a more painterly style. These woodblock prints published by Watanabe were included in the 1930 Toledo exhibition on shin hanga. 
Kazuma was one of the founding members of the Society of Japanese Creative Prints in 1918, along with Tobari Kogan and Yamamoto Kanae. Oda Kazuma worked both in the sosaku hanga and shin hanga worlds, meaning that he both printed and carved his own works and would also work with a publisher and professional artisans to create shin hanga, as he did with this print. This is one of six works he created with Watanabe in the 1920s.