Lot 266: KOYO OKADA

PROPERTY FROM THE JACOBSON/HASHIMOTO COLLECTION
Mount Fuji
Each signed in Japanese in ink on the recto.

Each 9 x 11 in. (22.9 x 27.9 cm).

Four gelatin silver prints, printed circa 1955.

circa 1950

Acquired directly from the estate of the artist

Phillips de Pury & Company is pleased to present this third installment of Japanese Modernist photographs from the Jacobson/Hashimoto Collection.
 
Widely recognized as an expert in the field of American and European photography, Tom Jacobson is best known for his efforts championing the work of the long-forgotten French photographer Pierre Dubreuil. With a similar goal to discover the great photographers of the East, Jacobson turned his attention to Japan’s rich history of art photography in the pre-war era. With a set of rare journals as his starting point, he and his assistant-turned-partner Kaori Hashimoto embarked on a journey that took them throughout Japan where they researched photographers, often meeting directly with them or their families. Looking at established and unknown photographers, alike, and driven by the strength of the images themselves, together they amassed a collection of prints demonstrating the breadth of Japanese modernist photographs. From still-lifes and nudes to landscapes and city scenes, these photographs reflect the talent and vitality of a culture that would be so drastically altered by war in the coming years.
 
The following 30 lots are the first works from this collection to be offered in our New York venue and offer a strong representation of the collection as a whole with seminal works by Koyo Okada, Minayoshi Takada, Shikanosuke Yagaki and Iwao Yamawaki, amongst others. Most of the works are believed to be unique and almost all were acquired directly from the artists or their families.