Kono Naotoyo Bairei (幸野楳嶺) (1844–95)

"Two Birds with Flowers and a Stream" [descriptive title only], c. 1950, published by Uchida Han (Uchida Publishing), Kyoto, with the publisher's seal and watermark "UCHIDA."

Colour woodblock

Size: (sheet) 39.8 x 26.9 cm; (plate) 34.4 x 22 cm

Condition: Superbly inked and printed impression in pristine condition. There is a setoff of ink on the far right edge.

I am selling this large woodblock print by Bairei for a total cost of  [deleted] at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this extraordinary woodblock print by Kono Bairei, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make your payment easy.

I originally purchased this large print (39.8 x 26.9 cm) by Kono Bairei because it was so superb in terms of the delicacy of the tonal gradations, the evenness of the printing and the precision of the colour registration. What I hadn't anticipated was that all the perfection inherently a part of this print would take away some of the magic that I experienced with the relative crudity of his printed books. In short, what I missed seeing were printer's faults where poor registration resulted in key-block lines animating areas of colour rather than outlining them and the serendipity of colour smudges that I value as genuine traces of an ancient printer at work.