Posted by Hans Olof Johansson (81.224.173.143) on January 08, 2006 at 13:20:55:
In Reply to: authenticity of prints? posted by Red Anjin on January 03, 2006 at 04:47:08:
Red,
Reading your original description of the prints ("great condition", "look like they have been cut for a cleaner edge", "clean and straight") and knowing that there is at least one modern reprint edition of the series, I was more or less convinced that they weren't the real thing.
However, your revised description of one of them (SJA Forum, http://62.238.34.70/sjabb/viewtopic.php?p=112#112), comparing it to the extremely well printed and well preserved copy displayed at the Auction Ukiyo-e website, has made me change my mind. While I'd expect a modern reprint to look very much like the Auction Ukiyo-e copy, your print obviously have the kind of defects you would normally expect in an ukiyo-e print of that age.
In fact, the Auction Ukiyo-e copy is in such a good condition that I felt I had to check if it was a modern reprint/reproduction. So I compared it to good online images of three other copies, one in Tokyo Metropolitan Library and two in Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, and found that all four copies (see image above) appear to be printed with the same set of woodblocks. Not only did I fail to find any significant differences in keyblock lines or dots - I also noticed a number of identical woodgrain patterns (for reference see John Fiorillo's Viewing Japanes Prints, http://optometry.berkeley.edu/~fiorillo/texts/topictexts/artist_varia_topics/woodgrain3.html). These could of course be included in a photographical reproduction, but probably impossible to fake in a woodblock-printed edition with other than the original blocks.
Consequently, if your print is an original and it was produced while the woodblocks were reasonably new, you should be able to spot the same woodgrain patterns.
Best regards,
Hans Olof