Vintage Japanese Figurative Etching – Embracing Figures – Tamiji Kitagawa

Artist: Tamiji Kitagawa (1894–1989)
Title: Untitled (Embracing Figures) (pending verification)
Medium: Etching on paper
Year: c 1950s-60s
Edition: 53/100
Image size: 8.8 × 13.8 cm (3.5 × 5.4 in.)
Paper size: 16.8 × 22.0 cm (6.6 × 8.7 in.)
Condition: Very good vintage condition with light, even age toning. Pencil signed and numbered, with artist's seal and blindstamp.

Notes:
A wonderfully intimate small etching by Tamiji Kitagawa, one of the most distinctive figurative artists of twentieth-century Japan. Rather than pursuing realism, Kitagawa builds expressive figures from rhythmic lines and richly textured marks, creating a composition that feels both sculptural and deeply human. The modest scale invites close viewing, where the delicacy of the etched line and the subtle embossing of the plate become part of the experience. Quiet but emotionally resonant, it is a work that reveals more the longer one spends with it.

Keywords: Tamiji Kitagawa, Japanese etching, figurative print, vintage Japanese print, expressive line, modern Japanese art, signed etching, twentieth century Japanese print