Lot 157: Ito Seiu (1882-1961) Fine Japanese Art

Late Taisho/early Showa Era Kakejiku, a vertical hanging scroll, ink and colours on silk, depicting a dramatic scene of bondage and tattooing aboard a pirate ship with ferocious pirates and several naked and semi-naked women, some already tattooed, lying on the deck or suspended from ropes or sails, the main subject a seated pirate in a check jacket tattooing the buttocks of a bound woman lying on his right knee, signed Seiu with seal Seiu; with wood storage box. 123cm x 41cm (48 3/8in x 16 1/8in). (2).

123cm x 41cm

Ito Seiu (original name Ito Hajime) was born in the Asakusa district of Tokyo and enjoyed a varied artistic education in metalwork, ivory carving, painting and later sculpture. He started his career as a newspaper illustrator but is best known as the 'father of bondage painting', for which he used as a model Sahara Kise who later became his second wife; he also painted ghostly scenes and other subjects from the Edo Period, often drawing his inspiration from the work of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892). 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.