Woodblock Print Catalog Database

Hasegawa Publishing Company Catalog: "Catalog of Japanese Colour Prints, Illustrated Books, Etc." Circa 1920
Circa 1920 Hasegawa catalog

Red Lantern Shop Catalogs
Spring 1967 catalog
Autumn 1980 Mailer catalog

Kyoto Hanga-In Catalogs
Kyoto Hanga-In and Shinagawa were publishers for many of the Kyoto-based woodblock print artists, including Bakufu Ohno, Mamoru Hiyoshi, Sanzo Wada, Gihachiro Okuyama, and Tomikichiro Tokuriki. Collectors of their prints would have realized that, while official print titles do exist, in many cases titles were not printed on the prints themselves. As a result, the woodblock print community (including both collectors as well as galleries) has often applied 'unofficial' titles to prints in a haphazard way. Fortunately access to official print titles does exist via the woodblock print catalogs issued by Kyoto Hanga-In and Shinagawa. At least eight such catalogs have been published, but to date examples of only four catalogs have surfaced among the woodblock print community. These four are listed below as catalogs [A], [B], [C], and [8]. The format and content of each catalog are generally the same, beginning with quite a lot of information regarding Kyoto Hanga-In and its founders, and the history of woodblock prints and their making. This is then followed by a selection of prints by various artists being offered by Kyoto Hanga-In. The catalogs also list other prints and print series that are not illustrated pictorially. The exact years of publication for the first three catalogs remain unknown because most of the catalogs carry no indication of publication date. After comparing the first three catalogs, I believe catalog [A] is the earliest edition, followed by [B] and then [C]. The smallest catalog by page count [A] lists only one address in Kyoto, while catalog [B] lists two addresses in Kyoto. It would appear that, at the time of production of these two catalogs Kyoto Hanga-In had not yet established their Tokyo office (which occurred in March, 1953). Furthermore, both catalogs [A] and [B] show the prints "Night Scene Of Water Mill" and "Night Scene Of Farm House", which were both 'first-editioned' in 1952. This narrows down the age of these two catalogs to sometime between 1952 and February 1953. Catalog [C] lists Kyoto Hanga-In's Tokyo office address, and it carries a note on page 12 mentioning a date of January 1954 in the future tense, so I assume that it is a later printing than [A] and [B], printed between March 1953 and January 1954. Update June 2006: Catalog [C] contains the print "Cormorant Fishing (Ships)" by Mamoru Hiyoshi. I've just determined this print was first published in August 1953, thus we can now safely date catalog [C] to between August 1953 and January 1954. Catalog [8] carries a note in Japanese that it is the 8th catalog edition and was published in October 1963 as a special edition for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Of greatest surprise to me was my finding of three Tsuchiya Koitsu prints by the publisher Baba Nobuhiko listed in this catalog. Could it be that Baba Nobuhiko sold his printing business and/or woodblocks to Kyoto Hanga-In? Hopefully in time the other four missing catalogs will be found by print collectors and will reveal further details of Kyoto Hanga-In's operations. I hope you find the display of these catalogs both interesting and helpful. Special thanks to Marc Kahn of Shotei.com and Fran Walker for allowing me to display images of their three catalogs here. Please remember that the copyright of all images displayed here remains that of Kyoto Hanga-In or its successor.
Catalog A
Catalog B
Catalog C
Catalog 8- October 1963 (Olympic Commemoration)