Vintage Japanese (?) Watercolours

Hello,

I picked these pictures up recently (from an op shop so no background or context) and was hoping someone might be able to help/ provide further info. Stylistically I believe they're Japanese- though I may be completely wrong. Looking closely I'm also fairly sure at least one is an original watercolour, not a print. Both have a crease down the middle so I wondered if perhaps they came from a book or folio? Also, the paper seems to have a faint silver glitter in it which I have never seen before.

They are neatly and competently framed (and nicely hung on my wall) so I am disinclined to take them out of the frame at this stage to see if there's anything hidden.

Any information would be gratefully received!

 

Possibly Japanese block prints. There should be publishing information in the margins if they are. You sometimes see micaceous ink used in the backgrounds of some prints but it usually looks different than the glitter seen in yours.

 

Is the picture of a Chinese Red Panda? I’m not sure what it is. They are nice prints, I would definitely have bought them

 

In your photographs, they appear to be scored. Is that correct?

Debora

 

There's a Pinterest entry on the raccoon, but I'm not a member.
They say it's a Hokusai woodblock print "Tanuki gazing at the moon". Hokusai prints can be quite desirable, but they are also much re-printed.

 

According to this site, the rabbits are Hokusai as well:
https://ukiyo-e.org/image/chazen/1984_1225e

 

Thank you all so much for the info- I'm so pleased my gut reaction they were Japanese was validated! And I certainly didn't expect someone to be able to discover the title and artist as my Google image searches for 'Japanese rabbit print' and similar didn't come up with it; thanks again.

Debora- I don't quite know what you mean by 'scored' so I have taken the best close-up photos I can with my phone- please ignore the white circle (it's the reflection of the ceiling lamp) but it does show the glitter effect I was talking about and that it seems to be thicker paper, almost parchment-like? And they both were originally folded in half before framing as they have a crease.

 

You want to be sure about the paper. Originals would have been printed on rice paper, which would have been thin. I think there probably would have been various writings and chops on the front, which I'm not seeing, but which could be under the mats.

I think the center crease is what Debra was asking about. I believe the originals were frequently bound into books, but I don't know how that would have been done or if a crease is a good sign or bad.

 

Ok thanks!

I explained that badly. Not having taken it out of the frame I'm not sure of actual thickness, just meant that it somehow seems denser than modern A4 printer paper; you can probably see what I mean from the close-up picture. No idea if it looks like old rice paper but certainly it's not translucent (thinking of modern rice paper).

I will wait to hear from Debora on the crease then! While obviously I'd prefer they are originals and old, I don't plan to sell them so am not too fussed if they end up being mid-century copies (judging by the way they are framed); also don't have much invested in them (they were $15 each).

 

Here I am! Don't have any info on crease. Was curious because I'd never seen Japanese woodblocks with scores.

Debora

 

I think these are probably Japanese. You would really need to take them out of their frames to determine how they were printed. Early Japanese books, and especially Chinese books, were folded into pages, even though they were printed on one long continuous piece of paper. These were then folded into a book where the pages were continuous but loose. The other way was for the long paper to be rolled into scrolls. Early Japanese woodblocks would “bleed” ink through the paper to the back and can appear almost translucent. There are lots of reproductions around, but with the crease in yours, I suspect they were removed from a book although it’s possible they are a separate print and just folded for storage. Love the simple frames that work so well.

 

Agree. The frames have lots of integrity, compliment the works well.

Debora

 

Thank you both! Yes, I love the framing too, and as it's been so competently done and has kept them safe already a few decades (judging by style of frame and ageing of matting) I will leave them undisturbed and a mystery for now