$1,500
Japanese, 19th century. Ukiyo-e woodblock book with 19 bright richly saturated figural scenes, marked as published by Omiya Kyojiro. Prints with fantastic and mythic views showing creatures in battle with muscular men, beautiful young geisha, samurai warriors, and other highly expressive compositions. Book measures approximately 9.7" x 7.125". Provenance: From the Estate of Mr. Soichi Furuta, Woodstock, Georgia. Note: Soichi Furuta (1927-2011) was a Renaissance Man of sorts, beginning his career in fine art arena. After attending UCLA, he joined a creative design and packaging firm in New York where he later became president. The firm (Stuart, Gunn & Furuta) was responsible for packaging design for a number of major brands including Michelob, Hershey's, Vicks, and Nestle. Concurrently, Mr. Furuta taught graduate-level courses in design at the City University in New York, later, he served as an adjunct professor of literature at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in North Carolina. Later in life, Furuta penned a dozen books in both English and Japanese with subjects ranging from poetry to translations and even a memoir. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for his book of poetry, "Montefeltro the Hawk Nose" that references the artwork of the Italian painter Piero della Francesca. Soichi Furuta's fine tuned sense of poetry, aesthetics and simple beauty are apparent throughout his collection as well as reflected in his own work.
Auctioneer:
Ahlers & Ogletree Auction Gallery
Date:
2015-03-22
