Hi I am hoping somebody on this board may be able to help identify this old woodblock print. It is of a Geisha it is signed on left side and then another on the right. Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Upon further examination, I don't think it's a geisha, but a noh theater actress. Noh is masked theater in Japan.
[h=2]Noh - Wikipedia[/h]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh Noh (能?, Nō), or Nogaku (能楽?, Nōgaku) —derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent"—is a major form of classical Japanese ...
Just tidying up some blasts from the past (including some very ancient ones), largely for the benefit of anyone searching the site for information.
Yes, it is a Noh performer and the date of 1937 is correct. It’s titled “[Woman] from Scenes from Noh Plays, Series II” and by the Japanese artist Tukioka, Gyokusei (1908-1994).
Here it is on the website of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, but pictured in low-resolution greyscale, although it’s a colour woodcut: