| Born in 1870 near Hamamatsu City (Shizuoka Prefecture) with the name "Sahei", Koitsu moved to Tokyo at the age of fifteen. He had planned to apprentice with Matsuzaki, a carver for the artist Kobayashi Kiyochika, but instead, he became Kiyochika's apprentice and moved into his home to study art and print design. It is through Kiyochika that Koitsu gained his trademark skill in the subtle use of light and shadow for his landscape prints. Koitsu lived with Kiyochika for 19 years and was considered more a member of Kiyochika's family than an apprentice. He worked and studying with Kiyochika until around Meiji 36 (1903). In Taisho 11 (1922) he moved to his wife's place of birth in Chigasaki City and lived there until his death. Although Koitsu first designed woodblock prints during the Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895), and later worked as a lithographer (around 1900 to 1905), he only really became a successful artist after his chance-meeting with Watanabe Shozaburo, the founder of the shin hanga print movement, at an exhibition of Kiyochika's works in 1931 that marked the anniversary of Kiyochika's death. In 1932 he started to produce landscape prints in the shin hanga style for Watanabe, the first being titled 'Cherry Blossom Viewing at Gion', and he went on to design a total of ten prints for Watanabe. He later designed prints for various publishers including Doi Sadaichi (known incorrectly in the West as Doi Teiichi), and a few prints for Kawaguchi, the Kyoto publisher Baba Nobuhiko, the publisher Tanaka Shobido, and the publisher Takemura. Along with co-author Tosh Doi I recently published the only available reference text and raisonne for this artist - "The Catalogue Raisonne of Tsuchiya Koitsu". It can be purchased here.
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| Later Editions (Hamamatsu-Do and Doi Eiichi published) | |||||||||||||||||||
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Asakusa Kinryuzan Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1938 July
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Kyushu Hakozaki Hachimangu Shrine Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1938
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Kyushu Hakozaki Hachimangu Shrine Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1938
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nagaragawa Cormorant Fishing Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1940, April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nara Horyuji Temple Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1938 June
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nara Kofukuji Temple Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1937 June
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nezu Shrine Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1934 December
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nikko Futarasan Temple Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1936 August
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nikko Futarasan Temple Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1936 August
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nikko Sacred Bridge Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1937, April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Spring Snow, Kyoto Maruyama Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1936 March
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Takanawa Sengakuji Temple Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1933 May
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Ueno Kiyomizu-Do Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1940 October
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Ueno Park Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1939 April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Ueno Shinobazu Pond Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1939 October
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Ushigome Kagurazaka Series: Sketches of Famous Places In Japan Date: 1939 August
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Yotsuya Araki Yokocho Series: Sketches of Famous Places in Japan Date: 1935 January |
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| Small Format (Koban, Chuban, Postcard, and Half-Postcard prints) | |||||||||||||||||||
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Asakusa Kannondo Temple Date: 1933
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Asakusa Kinryuzan Date: 1938 July
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Ducks Date: 1940 October
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Kyoto Kinkakuji Temple Date: 1930s
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Kyoto Maruyama Date: 1936 March
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Lake Sai Date: 1936 April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Lake Yamanaka Date: 1930s
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nara Horyuji Temple Date: 1930s
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nezu Shrine Date: 1934 December
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nezu Shrine Date: 1934 December
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nikko Date: 1937
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nikko Date: 1937
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Nikko Five-Storey Pagoda Date: 1930s
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Plum Warbler Date: 1940 February
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Tago Bay Date: 1936 April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Tago Bay Date: 1936 April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Tago Bay Date: 1936 April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Ueno Park Date: 1936 April
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Yotsuya Date: 1935 January
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Yotsuya Date: 1936 March
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Yotsuya Date: 1935 January |
Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Zojoji Temple in Snow Date: 1933 January |
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| Other Items | |||||||||||||||||||
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: The Catalogue Raisonne of Tsuchiya Koitsu Date: 2008 December
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Tsuchiya Koitsu: Adoration of Scenery Date: 1999
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Tsuchiya Koitsu: Adoration of Scenery Date: 1999
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Artist: Koitsu, Tsuchiya (1870-1949) [Tsuchiya Koitsu] Title: Tsuchiya Koitsu: Adoration of Scenery Date: 1999
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