More Nezumi - Prints!

#Nezumi #prints #japaneseprints

Here's some NEZUMI on Japanese Prints!

Shigenobu New year print -  a woman confronting a mouse or rat. Its white so about an escaped pet?

Here's a #surimono format print with the image of the rat serving as an introduction or maybe the top page of the print when folded since Japanese texts were read from right to left.

The last print is by Seiho - 1937 of a rat exploring a top hat. 

Kawaii but also iki ? 

Irises by Shibata Zeshin

#irises are one of the flowers for May in Japanese culture.

There are two very well known Rimpa style screen paintings of Irises but there are also #prints.

These two are 19th century works by #ShibataZeshin also famous for #lacquer and #painting

This first image is part of a set and is a comparison of Irises to Bamboo Shoots.

While this is a woodblock print the style is more like #nanga or #haiga 

This print 1878 also shows more the woodblock printmakers responded to the new aniline dyes as well as showing Shibata Zeshins brush and composition skills. 

Purple and green can sometimes look rather lurid together but the colorist who did the actual printing  has followed the painters sketch or instructions on a black ink sketch ( both methods seem to have been used) and used lighter greens to contrast with the rich deep blue violet of the flowers.

The Print Making Shop

18th century EDO townsfolk were proud of their thoroughly modern printmakers and prints.

Here we see customers arriving to inspect the latest prints on offer and watch them being made.

Note the color layout with its superb balance using a limited palate.

These are townsfolk not samurai or geisha or courtesans or actors just fans of prints shopping!

Chinese Art and BUGS

The Chinese were probably the first printmakers to feature butterflies moths and other insects on woodblock prints even before the Japanese!

More images from this subgenre of "birds and flowers" to come !

Hokusai Surimono

#surimono #ukiyo-e #hokusai

Surimono is a kind of ... well art print with limited editions often given as new year gifts or created as mementos of special occasions.

Here's a selection of some by Hokusai

The lines of calligraphy are poems.

I have a special fondness for this one due to its depiction of the tools used for painting and calligraphy, an inkstone for grinding inksticks, one of which is shown resting on one edge of the inkstone, a water pot with a flower placed in it not just for painting but perhaps water for the ink too, and the brush pot in the background shows us Asian style brushes. The long slender rod in the foreground is probably for keeping sheets of paper flat and aligned.

A simple yet elegant image of a snake surrounding two gourds or melons showing once again Hokusai's gift for interesting compositions and eye for the details of nature.

This is part of a larger sheet that would have been folded into a pamphlet.

Note how Hokusai takes the horizontal format of a scroll and uses a prolonged S curve layout to show all the objects and lead our eye to the text.

Coming soon. 

The Year of  the Monkey 

so Monkeys and Apes as a theme!

Two of Hokusai's Bridge Prints

#hokusai #ukiyo-e #japaneseprints

Hokusai is well known for his series of views of Mt Fuji and he also created print series on topics like famous Bridges.

Note how he makes use of traditional S curve compositions in the context of a print rather than a scroll or screen painting.

Yet Hokusai could also create compositions full of angles like this one!
Notice how the verticals of the reeds the tree and pillar complement the bridge supports and counter balance the curved areas and the circular forms of the hats and umbrellas!

Truly a masterpiece!

A HOKUSAI MEDLEY

#Hokusai is well known for his landscape prints and his famous #Manga sketchbooks but he was also a painter and designer of surimono prints. 

#surimono #japaneseprints #ukiyo-e #phoenix

I've shared 2 of his lesser known surimono prints and in the middle is part of a screen painting of a phoenix for contrast.

I have used this one a few times before as as well as being a well designed print it shows traditional asian brushes,an inkstone, and a block of ink. 

This is a detail of a 8 fold screen set of paintings probably used in a bedroom.

Japaneses prints had a variety of formats.

Surimono often feature long horizontal formats as they were frequently folded into pamphlets and given as newyear gifts.

More Hokusai soon! 

I'll try to find some unusual images that illustrate all aspects of his work.