Sōzan signatures

Unlike other authors such as Koson or Shotei, it does not appear that Sōzan has changed his name, and his signature has undergone few changes over time.

Ito Sōzan’s signature is composed of 2 kanji characters: 総 山 that read “Sō” and “San” (or “Zan”).

There are also two prints (WT-01 and CH-12) in which the seals are represented by signatures: one with the writing “I to u” and the other with the writing “So u za n”

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The below table lists the most representative signatures, about ten, mainly based on the variation of the “Sō” character.

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As for dating, the type 2 signature appears in the 1910 Scrapbook, so it could be assumed that this signature (and the analogous type 1) is the oldest.
The signature n. 5 can be dated to 1915 being accompanied by a text with the date. This signature, in addition to the usual characters Sō and Zan, presents the character寫 (SHA or UTSUSU), that could be translate as “drawn by” or “create by”, whyle signature n. 6 shows the character 画 (GA or KAKU) whit the same meaning.

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