Posted by Marc Kahn on January 14, 2002 at 04:38:07:
In Reply to: Hokusai: Is it authentic? posted by Ferdinand Flucher on January 13, 2002 at 14:03:49:
Ferdinand,
I am not a Hokusai scholar, but I do know a bit about Japanese woodblock print publishers in the Taisho and early Showa eras (1911-1941 more or less). The red seal in the lower right corner of your print reads "Takemura".
My interpretation of this is that the seal refers to the publisher Takemura Hideo, who was active in the 1930s. Most woodblock print publishers during these times produced both new images from contemporary artists and older images from the ukiyo-e masters. This would infer that your print was an early Showa reproduction of Hokusai's original.
I don't have access to a high resolution image of the original Hokusai print, but there are plenty of ukiyo-e scholars who frequent this Q&A bulletin board who have such access. Perhaps by comparing some of the keyblock details, they will be able to verify (or contest) my inference that your print is a reproduction.
Marc