Help Identify These Type of Prints

chadkeath

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Hello and thank you in advance for your help/input. I have had these in my closet for awhile and just now dug them out. I’m not sure if they are woodblock or what? Not sure of artist either. They are of a preying mantis and I believe wasp? They have a seal it chop mark for signature. Any help is appreciated. Also Merry Christmas.. 4A5D4A81-5EAF-4CA2-8BB4-2C7BB26796AB.webpE4D207DE-6CBC-4F10-9CC4-1CCA11D1FA0D.webp5E816132-1CF9-429C-9C77-9B3920DD943B.webp
 

What you have are woodblock/stencil prints by the Japanese artist Tokuriki Tomikichiro (徳力富吉郎) born in 1902 and died in 2000. He worked out of Kyoto, originally as a traditional painter, before turning his hand to woodblock and stencil printing from about 1929 and went on to become a leader of the Kyoto 'Sosaku Hanga' movement.

These are not originals though. The prints incorporate his ‘Tomi’ seal as part of the design, but originals would also be signed in pencil at the bottom. They’re part of a series of insect images which I think were originally produced in the 1950s, for which you have the mantis (#3) and the bee (#4). There was also a dragonfly (as #1), a butterfly (as #2), and I think there may have been a fifth image too.

Unfortunately, not valuable (perhaps $20 each at most), since even the originals were produced in quite large numbers by his own printing company ‘Matsukyu’ and in commercial quantities by the sub-company ‘Koryokusha’ established in 1948.

Merry Xmas to you too.
 

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I like those and Merry Christmas to you.
 

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