Posted by Richard Parks on August 24, 2001 at 13:30:09:
In Reply to: Re: Beginner Question on Block Seals posted by John Fiorillo on August 24, 2001 at 12:36:30:
Thank you! It's all starting to make a little more sense to me. Mr. Fiorillo, your explanation does lead me to another question, though, so I hope you'll indulge me once more.
I'm fairly certain the H. Yoshida I have is one of the posthumous prints, since the pencil signature appears embossed. If the artist's seal was hand-stamped that explains the difference, but who would have done the brush signature?
: Richard,
: It depends on the type of print. Signatures on traditional ukiyo-e prints were virtually all carved into the blocks. Most of the artist's seals were also from the blocks, but there are instances in which the seals are hand-stamped. However, Hiroshi Yoshida was one modern artist whose original prints were signed by hand (with sumi and a brush), not printed from blocks. The artist seal was also hand-stamped. If you compare more than one original impression of the same H. Yoshida design, you will see slight differences in the signatures and also in the positions of the signatures and seals. Consistent with this, the signatures will be different on impressions of those images with the same key block but different color blocks to simulate different times of day (e.g., Sumida River, Ogura 57-59; Sailing Boats, Ogura 40-45). If the signatures had been printed from key blocks, they would have been identical on all these original impressions, which they are not.
: John