Original Japanese Igawa Sengai Woodblock Print Great Kanto Earthquake Tokyo 1926 11"W LS#031

Igawa Sengai (1876–1961) — woodblock print documenting reconstruction after the Great Kantō Earthquake, Honjo Narihira district, Tokyo

Vintage Japanese Taishō Era, 1926

From the series Taishō Shinsai Gashū (大正震災画集, Pictures of the Taishō Earthquake), published by Emaki Kenkyūkai in 1926, three years after the catastrophic Great Kantō Earthquake of September 1, 1923. The print is titled 本所業平電車通り — Honjo Narihira Densha-dōri (Tram Street in Honjo, Narihira) — inscribed in the upper right cartouche alongside the artist's signature 洗厓 (Sengai) and red artist's seal.

The scene depicts reconstruction workers heaving a heavy wooden cart through the rubble-strewn streets of the Honjo-Narihira district, one of the neighborhoods most severely devastated by the earthquake and subsequent fires. The composition foregrounds the physical labor of recovery — straining coolies in hachimaki headbands, passengers riding the cart, a figure with Western-style straw hat — while the background stretches into a panorama of collapsed brick buildings, stripped timber, and a landscape still barely recognizable as a functioning city. The diagonal thrust of the cart wheel and leaning figures conveys the raw effort of urban rebirth with vivid immediacy.

The 25-print series, issued by the Emaki Kenkyūkai, was produced three years after the disaster when Tokyo's rebuilding was well underway, intended to document the events for future generations. Igawa Sengai contributed multiple designs. The series is represented in institutional collections including the Wolfsonian–FIU and the Royal Ontario Museum.

Igawa Sengai (1876–1961), born Igawa Jōzaburō in Gifu City, studied nihonga with Tomioka Eisen and printmaking under Inano Toshitsune. He was an active painter, illustrator, and print designer and a contributor to the Miyakoshinbun newspaper. 

• Title: 本所業平電車通り (Honjo Narihira Densha-dōri / Tram Street in Honjo, Narihira)
• Artist: Igawa Sengai (井川洗厓, 1876–1961)
• Series: Taishō Shinsai Gashū (大正震災画集 — Pictures of the Taishō Earthquake)
• Publisher: Emaki Kenkyūkai (絵巻研究会), 1926
• Format: Yoko-e (horizontal format); color woodblock print on washi
• Image: approx. 11 1/4" W × 8 5/8" H (28.5 × 22 cm)

Condition: Very fine impression with strong color. Minor remnant from prior mounting on the verso at one upper corner; else clean. Matted 14.5" W × 12" H in blue mat.