Monkey and Crab (猿とカニ)

Designer: Utagawa Toyhohiro | Carver: David Bull | Printer: Rei

Paper size: 23cm by 15cm | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [M] ?

Price: $ 65.00£ 52.50€ 59.75

Description: This gracious print is thought to come to us from the brush of Utagawa Toyohiro. Although the illustrations of this print that I have seen do not have a signature, some copies are known to carry one of his seals, and the gentle mood is characteristic of his work. Toyohiro is not a name that immediately springs to mind when discussing the history of ukiyo-e, but he is one of those artists whose influence has spread far beyond the direct reach of his own brush; in 1811 he took into his studio - and became the mentor of - the 14-year old boy Tokutaro Ando, whom we now know by the name of Hiroshige ...

Note (1): This print was originally published by David in his Surimono Albums series. He made approximately 200 copies of each of those prints, and distributed them only in album form, never as single prints. It is his idea that after the 200 album sets of any particular album have been sold, the blocks (still in absolutely perfect condition) could then be used to produce prints to be added to the Mokuhankan catalogue, with the printing being done by hired craftsmen working under his direction. The first Surimono Album is now out-of-print, and this is one of the designs from it.