1. The work is a kuchi-e by Takeuchi Keishu. It is interesting to note the title in English is called, White Robe Kannon

It might be a self portrait of the artist himself, which is very interesting.

2. Inscription

The inscription on the back says: Sugano Bunkei, Yamagata Prefecture, Tendo City

Sugano Bunkei (1912-2008) Sugano Bunkei wrote this inscription himself.

There is a small hand written inscription on the back as well that says: Subano Bunkei.

Bunkei was a local artist situated in Tendo city in Yamagata Prefecture.
Bunkei for many years served as a teacher in art classes (for middle or high schools)
and later became the curator at the Hiroshige Museum. Bunkei specialized in Suiboku-ga
or watercolours and has done a few acrylics as well.

It is interesting that the work was owned by an artist inspired by an artist of the past.

This print is from a novel about a young woman named Teru and an artist named Michikage.
Because of the differences between their fathers the young couple cannot marry.
In time Teru, like the merciful Kannon, devotes her life to helping others who were unjustly treated by her father.
Kuchi-e were woodblock prints used as foldout frontispieces for novels or inserts into magazines from around 1895 to 1915.
They were meant as a visual aid and as a sales promotion at the same time.
In competition with Western lithographic or photo-mechanical printing techniques modern to the times, kuchi-e were usually well
executed, sometimes in deluxe printing with such lavish techniques as mica or embossing.
The main subjects were bijin-ga or beautiful women, often in a Western style presaging the Taisho modern women.
For more on this kuchi-e and its story, please refer to:
"Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints" by Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, pp68-70.

Age is circa 1900. The image 8.5" x 11.75"

This is an original Woodblock Print made as a Kuchi-e and as such has the two fold where this was folded
to insert in a book or magazine edition. .

Kannon Subject: Although sometimes depicted with masculine features in the earliest representations, Kannon later appears with attributes of
both genders and eventually becomes a symbol of the divine feminine, the divine mother in both China and Japan.
Popular feminine versions in modern Japan include Koyasu Kannon (child giving), Jibo Kannon (loving mother), Gyoran Kannon
(carrying fish basket), and others. Kannon's Śakti is Tara Bosatsu, who is sometimes depicted as Kannon's wife; Śakti is Sankrit
for "female personification or avatar of the male." Feminized forms of Kannon also exist in Japan's Christian and Shintō traditions,
notably Maria Kannon (Virgin Mary) and the Shintō Sun Goddess Amaterasu (often paired with Kannon in Japan's Kami-Buddha
matrix).