Lot 404: ATTRIBUTED TO ITO SEIU (1882-1961) Taisho (1912-1

ATTRIBUTED TO ITO SEIU (1882-1961) Taisho (1912-1926) or Showa (1926-1989) era, mid-20th century Makimono (horizontal narrative scroll), ink and colours on silk, depicting a variety of satirical demonic fantasies of sex and violence, unsigned; with a storage box. 8.6cm x 156cm (3 3/8in x 61 3/8in). (2).

Ito Seiu (original name Hajime) was born in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, the son of a metalworker. He enjoyed a varied artistic education in metalwork, ivory-carving and sculpture before leaving home to study the Rinpa style of painting with Nozawa Teiu. Around 1910 he started his career as a newspaper illustrator and after the Kanto Earthquake of 1923 embarked on a career as a playwright. He is also known as a satirical painter and the ‘father of bondage painting’, using several female models including Sasaki Kaneyo who would later work with the well-known artists Takehisa Yumeji and Fujishima Takeji. He fell foul of government censors during the 1930s and much of his work was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of spring 1945; his surviving paintings are rare. For further information see ‘Maboroshi no seme-eshi Ito Seiu (Ito Seiu, Painter of Bondage Fantasies)’, Geijutsu shincho (April 1995), pp.1-67. A bondage painting by Seiu was sold in these rooms, 6 Nov 2014, lot 157. Illustrated on pages 162-163.