The art of Japanese gardening dates back centuries, and its many forms have been developed and refined until all its elements contain
both physical and metaphysical significance. The Japanese garden is a subject that many artists have depicted, but several have specialized
in such views. A few sôsaku hanga artists were especially attracted to the patterns and textures of gardens.
Okiie Hashimoto (1899-1993) was trained in Western-style oil painting and graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1924. In the
1930s he studied briefly with Hiratsuka Un'ichi (1895-1997), one of the most
influential of the sôsaku hanga artists. Although he had made a few prints while still in art school, he began making prints
seriously around 1936.
For over thirty years Hashimoto was a middle school teacher in Tokyo, but then retired in 1955 to devote his efforts to printmaking. The
example on the right is titled in pencil Zentei ("Front Garden") as well as Sekitei ("Rock Garden"), numbered
45/50, signed "Okiie Hashimoto," and dated 1958. The block-printed script in the lower right margin reads Hashimoto Okiie saku ("Work of Hashimoto Okiie"). The view of the raked sand is effectively represented in parallel verticals that lead into the
wave-like circles surrounding the garden rocks. The lower part of the image was printed with plywood to create a bold grain pattern
suggesting a balcony or veranda, which is punctuated by the artist's red seal near the right edge. There are multiple perspectives in
many of Hashimoto's prints, as here where the flattened frontal view of the plywood contrasts with the more three-dimensional aspect
of the sand and rocks. Hashimoto's cropped image emphasizes movement, form, and texture with subdued tonality and a refined manner. |
  Rikio Takahashi (born 1917) also specialized in depicting the forms of the Japanese garden, especially the classic gardens of Kyoto. He
was the son of a Nihonga ("Japanese-style painting") artist and from 1949-1955 became an important pupil of the seminal figure in Japanese printmaking, Onchi Kôshirô (1891-1955), whose late non-representational
style had a significant influence.
Takahashi is one of the last true sôsaku hanga artists. He successfully explored in an abstracted manner various forms found in gardens and nature.
He is especially adept at the subtle partial overlay of one or more colors to create varied opacities and textures as well as complexity of shapes.
Many of his prints evoke an atmosphere of stillness and balance that have a sense of timelessness. Takahashi's prints vary in size, with some reaching roughly
three feet in height. The example on the right is a large-format print (on paper measuring 91.5 x 60.9 cm) titled in pencil "Nunnery" (other impressions
have a more complete title, "Nunnery's Garden"). It was no. 49 in the artist's "Kyoto Series," this design numbering 5/35 and dated 1975, with an English signature, Rikio Takahashi.
The view presents the forms and colors of a garden in one of the Buddhist convents (called 'amadera') in Kyoto,
and the warm greens, browns, and yellows suggest spring or early summer. The natural forms of the layered rocks below contrast with the superimposed shapes above,
including rectilinear forms that announce human intervention within the natural world. ©2000-2001 by John Fiorillo
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Jenkins, Donald: Images of a Changing World: Japanese Prints of the Twentieth Century. Portland, 1983, pp. 102 and 126.
- Smith, Lawrence: The Japanese Print Since 1900: Old Dreams and New Visions. London, 1983, pp. 119 and 129.
- Smith, Lawrence: Modern Japanese Prints 1912-1989. London, 1994, p. 46.
- Statler, Oliver: Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn. Rutland, VT: 1956, pp. 133-136.
|
Home
Topics