Edutainment > Shiro Kasamatsu Catalog

Shiro Kasamatsu
The Complete Woodblock Prints

March 2005: Dr. Andreas Grund released a newly updated and revised version of his catalog raisonne 'Shiro Kasamatsu - The Complete Woodblock Prints'. It is a comprehensive guide for collectors with over 300 prints created by Shiro Kasamatsu during his lifetime. The catalog contains sections on seals, dating, and publisher's information.

The catalog is self-published and now available directly by Dr. Andreas Grund. The catalog is unique and an indispensable tool for experts and Shiro Kasamatsu fans. But it is no "coffee table book". To our knowledge it is the only major book publication about the works of Shiro Kasamatsu.

If you like to order this catalog raisonné, you can do so on the web site of Ukiyo-e Gallery.

Here is the original text of the preface by Dr. Andreas Grund:

The Complete Woodblock Prints

"Shiro Kasamatsu is without doubt an integral part of the shinhanga movement, however literature about him and his works is scarce, especially in English. To help bridge this void, I have created here an extensive preliminary catalog raisonné of Shiro Kasamatsu's woodblock prints - drawing from various exhibition catalogues (particulary the comprehensive 1996 exhibition 'Hundred Views of Japan by Kasamatsu Shiro' Mokuhan Nihon Hyakkei held at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum), other written sources, and the woodblock prints of several fellow collectors. Such a summarym however, cannot substitute a full monography of this artist, which still has to be written.

Therefore, this Kasamatsu compilation is intended to serve the sole purpose of acting as a handy factual guide to both collectors and art dealers as an aid to identify the woodblock prints of Shiro Ksamatsu in terms of title, year and publisher. As such it is comprised of two parts:

Part One contains the images (most are in color) of the woodblock prints by Shiro Kasamatsu. When possible, photos were taken from early editions, however in many cases only later editions were available. Also a range of typical seals and signatures of Shiro Kasamatsu is included for easy identification. Information about the various publisher seals of Watanabe and Unsodo is not presented, because sufficient literature and online information do exist already.

Part Two is a corresponding list of the prints, which includes more detailed facts as exact print size, reference catalogue numbers, literature and carver/printer information. Subsequently, additional prints have since been included into the list and in a few cases the dating of the prints needed correction. Consequently the earlier numbering system has herein been modified to give both the list and the image parts a clearer relational structure, and allow for the possible future addition of newly discovered prints.

Certainly, this work would not have been possible without the support and assistance of many people. For their input and for allowing me the use of existing images of of making photos of their prints I want to thank David Kaplan of Mita Arts, Thomas Crossland, Robin Deveureux, Herbert Egenolf, Chris Johannesen, Marc Kahn, Paul Knutson, John Mason, Tsunehiro Nakajima of Nakajima Shobisha, Teiichi Yamada of Unsodo, Yamada Shoten Ltd. amd the Yamanashi Pefectural Museum.

Of course the search goes on, with the likelihood that some few additional prints will show up in future, most likely those in formats smaller than oban. Therefore the author will be most appreciative of any input in form of missing images, comments and corrections."

Dr. Andreas Grund

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