Shimura Tatsumi
From Hanga Gallery: Tatsumi Shimura is known for designing several striking bijin-ga prints towards the end of the Shin Hanga movement. Born in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, Shimura's real name was Sentaro Shimura. He lived in Yokohama from 1910 and in 1921 he began studying art with Yamakawa Saiho, a well-known designer. In 1924 he became an apprentice of Yamakawa Shuho (Saiho's son), who was also a bijin-ga artist. Shimura exhibited paintings with Kyodotai in 1927 and with Seikinkai in 1938. He became known for his paintings of beautiful women with long eyelashes and blurred pupils. As a young man, Tatsumi also worked as an illustrator for newspapers, serialized novels, and magazines, notably for the Japanese magazine "Woman's world" (Fujokai). His most famous illustrations were for the novel Tange Sazen by Hayashi Fubo. From 1948 to 1952, Shimura designed several woodblock prints of beauties that were published by Kato Junji. Later he collaborated with the Japanese Institute of Prints to create a series called "Five Figures of Modern Beauties" (Gendai bijin fuzoku gotai). These prints were published in 1953 in editions of 200. They depict Japanese women in traditionally feminine poses and attire. The finely detailed figures are juxtaposed against very simple backgrounds. "Late Summer" cleverly alludes to Hokusai's famous ukiyo-e print Red Fuji pictured on the woman's fan. After a solo exhibition on his sixtieth birthday in 1967, Shimura devoted his career entirely to Nihonga, or Japanese style painting.
Five Figures of Modern Beauties
Caution: prints from what I consider is probably an open (= unlimited) edition are often sold as being from the limited edition strikes. A true limited edition print by Tatsumi will have either the edition number written on the print, or will have two thin red seals in the margins. I currently know of four confirmed limited-edition printings. The first three have edition sizes of 150, 200, and 300 prints, and are all pencil-editioned and contain a round red seal in the bottom margin of each print, while a fourth edition of 300 prints is pencil-signed and editioned by Tatsumi at the left of the bottom margin and does not contain the red round seal (see images below). There is also a 5th edition that does not contain edition numbering, but contains either one or two thin red rectangular seals in the margins. I am not sure if this edition is limited or an open edition, but I do feel that it is a very early edition (1950s/60s), and may well be the first edition. There is also a 6th edition which I consider to be an open (non-limited) edition. Prints from this open edition are quite common and I suspect were published much more recently. So to conclude, there appears to be at least six editions of this series. At least two carvers and three printers appear on prints from this series, the carvers being Yashita Tadashichi (on the early editions) and Nakagawa Chushichi (newer editions), and the three printers being Ito Shuntaro and Inomura Masanosuke (early editions), and Onodera Ryuji (newer editions). See the edition comparison image below for visual identification of each edition (click on the image for an even larger example). I also provide a 'confusion matrix' of printer and carver seals for each edition. If you have further information regarding this series, and in particular, high-res scans of prints, and literature that may have accompanied the prints (brochures, album case, etc.), I'd love to hear from you.
Shimura Tatsumi Maihime (Dancing Girl) Five Figures of Modern Beauties Limited edition 91/300 1953	Shimura Tatsumi Oibane (Playing Battledore and Shuttlecock) Five Figures of Modern Beauties Limited edition 15/300 1953	Shimura Tatsumi Marumage - Natsu (Reflection in a Mirror) Five Figures of Modern Beauties Limited edition 15/300 1953	Shimura Tatsumi Hanafubuki (Falling Cherry Blossoms) Five Figures of Modern Beauties Limited edition 15/300 1953

Edition Comparisons

Edition Confusion Matrix

Edition	Maihime (Dancing Girl)	Oibane (Playing Battledore)	Marumage (Reflection in a Mirror)	Hanafubuki (Falling Cherry Blossoms)	Natsu Takete (Late Summer)
"Two Thin Seals" "One Thin Seal" (separate editions?)	Carver: Yashita Tadashichi Printer: Inomura Masanosuke	Carver: Yashita Tadashichi Printer: Inomura Masanosuke	Carver: Yashita Tadashichi Printer: Inomura Masanosuke	Carver: Yashita Tadashichi Printer: Inomura Masanosuke	Carver: Yashita Tadashichi Printer: Inomura Masanosuke
150 (red round seal)	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera
200 (red round seal)		Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera
300 (red round seal)	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera
300 (artist pencil-signed)	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: ? Printer: ?
Open ed. 1 (Recent?)	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera	Carver: Nakagawa Printer: Onodera
Open ed. 2 (Old?)		Carver: Yashita Tadashichi Printer: Ito Shuntaro			Carver: Yashita Tadashichi Printer: Inomura Masanosuke

Click on the image below for a detailed view of the seals.

Note: Here is yet again another variant edition -- the print "Battledore". This print contains neither edition information nor the two thin red seals, so one would expect the carver and printer to be Nakagawa and Onodera respectively. However, on close inspection one finds that the carver is Yashita Tadashichi (carver for the "two thin seals" edition) and the printer is Ito Shuntaro.