Tsuchiya Koitsu, The River Banyu in Springtime

Notes: A seldom seen design, published by the small-scale publisher, Baba Nobuhiko. Lower left margin K100-BN seal reads, "Hanken Shoyu", "Baba Nobuhiko". There are two different strikes of this print. The first print (this example) carries the standard Koitsu seal and signature, while the second variant strike carries a Shiro seal. Note that the carving and positioning of the date and title text is different for both variations, and that the first strike (this example) contains no keyblock border impression. - Koitsu Catalogue Raisonne; pg. 19. Baba Nobuhiko was a minor publisher who was active from the 1930's through 1950's. They produced high quality shin-hanga prints with especially fine carving and printing techniques. Tsuchiya Koitsu was the principal artist and also most notable to work with Baba Nobuhiko. The majority of resources, including woodblocks for creating Koitsu's prints were destroyed due to the uncontrollable fires that raged throughout sections of Tokyo in March of 1945. Due to this devastation, the publisher had to give up his entire business enterprise for a number of years, making these designs more difficult to locate then prints created by larger publishing companies like Doi Hangaten.