Kawamata silk refining Ltd Calendar
(1910)
- Medium
- colour woodblock print on paper, silk
- Measurements
- 36.3 × 25.5 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Japan
- Accession Number
- 2022.841
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of the Estate of Edna Dorothy Bull (née Stainton) in memory of her grandmother Sarah Matilda Whitbourn, 2022 - Gallery location
- Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International - About this work
-
In the early twentieth century, the Deer and Stag Pure Silk Company (Kawamata Kenpu) was one of Japan’s leading textile traders, frequented by foreign cruise-ship passengers visiting Yokohama. Every year the company produced a high-quality twelve-page calendar as a souvenir gift for customers. In 1910 Kawamata commissioned the leading ukiyo-e portrait artist Toyoharu Chikanobu – also known as Yōshū – to produce twelve images of women, each dressed in kimono that match the month and season of the year. Each page is hand-printed in the traditional ukiyo-e manner and includes a machine-printed date chart.