Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

KOHO SHODA (1871? - 1946?) BLACK CAT AT NIGHT
Woodcut, ca. 1930's. Sealed ' Koho'. Published by Nishinomiya Yosaku. Fine impression, colour and condition; 340 x 78 mm. The design of this print has been probably inspired by a haiku poem by Kawabata Bosha (1900-1941): "In the thick of the leaves / the eyes of a black cat / ominous flashes of gold".

An enigmatic printmaker often associated with graceful depictions of women and gardens in an elongated format. Information about this Shin Hanga artist is very much in the darkness, beginning with the dates. Helen Merritt lists an artist known as Shoda Koho with the dates 1875-1925 (Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, 'Guide to modern Japanese woodblock prints: 1900-1975', Hawai, 1997, p. 73). Amy Reigle Stephens lists him with the dates 1871-1946 (Amy Reigle Stephens, 'The New Wave - Twentieth Century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection', London and Leiden, 2005). Koho Shoda published with Nishinomiya Yosaku (associated with Hasegawa).