36 Beauties   
Japanese Woodblock Prints by
Mizuno TOSHIKATA (1866 - 1908)

from April 1st through April 30, 2010

Mizuno Toshikata began his studies under Taiso Yoshitoshi, the most prominent protagonist of ukiyo-e during the transition from a rigid feudalist to a modern society, which was triggered in Japan by the forced opening of the country to the West. Later he was a disciple of the Japanese style painter Watanabe Shôtei. Today his works are found in the collections of the Ashmolean (Oxford), Fine Arts Museum (San Francisco), Musée Guimet (Paris) and Tokyo National Museum. Born only two years before emperor Meiji’s ascendance to the throne and dying four years before him, Toshikata became an important figure in Meiji era wood block prints, combining traditional elements of ukiyo-e with the tender restraint of the Shijo school. He contrasts the dramatic changes of his time with atmospheric genre scenes of the past, as to be seen in the series published 1891-93, which is the subject of our exhibition. We see beautiful women, often in seasonal pursuits, in thirty six nostalgic scenes, mainly from the Edo period (1603-1868), but also reaching as far back as the 11th century.

!!! IMPORTANT NOTE !!!

                                                 Munich in March 2010

Dear Customers and Friends of Gallery GEMINI,

GEMINI exists now for about 25 years.                      The forrunner, the "Auktionnetz" was founded together with Knut Netz and Barry Davies already in 1980.      Not a short time in a man´s life!                               My doughter Claudia is now living for mor than 2 years with husband and 2 children on the sunny shores of Ibiza and seems to be quite happy there with little intention to return back to Munich.                               I myself am becoming slowly but steadily older - somehow... - with a softer pace and I think time has come to step back a little, which means that I am going to leave behind the gallery - but not the Netsuke-Business. Anyway., this was always a very individual affair with a very personal contact to both, customers and collectors.                                                     Therefore I decided to give up the gallery at the end of this year - but not the dealing with those wonderful miniature carvings named Netsuke which so easily fit into a small case with that I meet my clients most of the time in a relaxing private ambiente.                                                                 In the gallery however there are not only Netsuke and other Sagemono, as most of you know but also all kinds of Japanese (and some other Oriental) Antiques and Objects of Art, which are now looking for a new home.                                                                                

For that reason we will sell from now on for very low prices a great part of our stock.

Bargaining will be accepted flexably!

Information and pictures on our Japanese Works of Art you can still find on our homepage www.gemini-galerie.de                                                              and specially on NETSUKE under www.netsuke-gemini.de .

With my very best regards

Herbert Hohenadl