09/01/2026
Hiroaki Takahashi (Shotei) - Returning Woman in an Autumn Evening
A woman returns home at dusk carrying a bundle of brushwood in this atmospheric autumn scene by Takahashi Hiroaki, better known as Shotei. She walks along a quiet country path beside a narrow stream, passing a small vermilion shrine nestled among darkened trees. Brilliant red maple leaves frame the foreground, while a flight of migrating birds crosses the expansive blue evening sky.
Shotei was particularly adept at transforming scenes of everyday rural life into evocative studies of season and atmosphere. Here, the solitary figure occupies only a small portion of the tall composition, surrounded by autumn grasses, deepening shadows, and the enormous open sky. The gradual transition from the dark foreground to luminous blue above beautifully suggests the fading light of an autumn evening.
Published by Watanabe Shozaburo, the design is recorded as M-5 in the Shotei catalog and no. 205 in Watanabe's 1936 catalog. The composition was originally created before the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and was subsequently reissued from recut blocks; this impression is from the post-earthquake version.
The Woodblock Print
This mitsugiri-sized woodblock is in very fine condition with good bleed-through, clean and intact margins, and a clean verso.
About the Artist
https://moonlitseaprints.com/inventory/mls2026122-hiroaki-takahashi-shotei-returning-woman-in-an-autumn-evening/
