Original drawings by Gekko are amongst the rarest of items. Often they were done on very thin paper to be used as templates for his print works. Some are preliminary works for illustrations in books and magazines. Occasionally one might get a glimpse of a design for a series that was never actually created. The first 8 of the drawings illustrated here are originally from the personal collection of Mizuno Toshikata, one of Gekko's younger contempories.

This drawing is for an illustration from "Nansou Satomi Hakkenden, Nansou Satomi and The Eight Dogs" a well known and much loved story in Japan. Gekko illustrated a hefty 2 volume edition of this tale.

 

This drawing was done for an illustration in the popular magazine Fujo Zasshi. It perhaps illustrates Tokikawa yuki gyou zu. Gekko did a painting in a very similar vein.

 

This drawing appears to be for a print, the text box suggests it may be one of a series, but no known print or series exists.

 

This is a working drawing for the April print from Ukiyo-e Junikagetsu, notation and colors are to be seen and a completely unrelated figure is seen upside down top left.

 

This is a working drawing for the August print from Ukiyo-e Junikagetsu, notation and colors are to be seen.

 

This is probably an exercise for the historical triptych print Tanenobu but could be for a painting as it is much larger than print size

 

Another working drawing for Tadenobu but very large so possibly for a painting

 

A large drawing possibly for the historical triptych Last Stand of the Kusunoki Clan

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The next series of drawings appear to be related to Gekko's 21 volume drawing manual sometimes called his Manga

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A drawing for a triptych from the Sino Japanese War series,number 28. (Courtesy of the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art)

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Finally a lovely drawing showing the 45th chapter from his Genji series