Hashimoto (ikeda) Koei: Snowy Egrets in Rain

Three snowy egrets make their way through green marsh grasses. The background features a highly textured white-to-black gradation and the marks of the baren are evident, adding depth to the image. The birds seem to glow against a dark background, and a silver rain falls. Their snowy plumage features embossing. Koei Hashimoto was a Kyoto artist who also specialized in calligraphy. There seem to be several editions of this design; the Art Institute of Chicago has an example that was donated in 1950 that was printed ca. 1930 with a different set of blocks (1950.1499). The publisher’s information is unknown on that example. This version of this work most often appears with the Uchida publisher’s seal, but this example has what must be the artist’s red seal instead. There is no publisher’s information on the print, but the paper and the printing would fit to a mid 20th century date, so it is possible that this predates the Uchida editions.