Original Japanese painting by Ito Seiu (1882-1961). Ink and color on paper. Total size: 14 1/2" x 10" inches. Size painting: 10 4/5" x 7 1/2" inches. Signed and sealed by the artist. Some minor wrinkling and staining, marks and threesome flaws otherwise in a very nice state. "A startling piece portraying a tied up woman wearing a headlock while sitting in a hole. The legendary Ito Seiu (his original name was Ito Hajime) was a Japanese style-painter from Tokyo, who studied Rimpa school under Nozawa Teiu. While he worked as an illustrator for newspapers, he was also known as a genre painter depicting sado-erotic subjects and ghosts. Because of his pioneering role in the art of bondage Seiu is nicknamed the 'father of kinbaku'. A lot of Seiu’s work was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of Spring 1945, therefore his surviving paintings are rare. For more information see Maboroshi no seme eshi Ito Seiu (Ito Seiu, Painter of Bondage Fantasies), Geijutsu shincho (April 1995), pp.1-67.