Japanese Prints

74
Fern
represents long life, and happiness in marriage. Its leaves are white
on one side and black on the other, which stands for honesty and
sincerity.
Firefly
fireflies symbolise the summer and they have been a metaphor for
passionate love in poetry since the 8th century. Their eerie lights are
also thought to be the altered form of the souls of soldiers who have
died in war.
Four Noble Flowers
The chrysanthemum, the plum blossom, the orchid, and bamboo.
Frog
The frog is thought of as good luck for travellers. Images or charms
in the shape of frogs were worn during long voyages to assure
safety, particularly across water. The Japanese word for frog is
“kaeru”, which sounds like the word “return.” Travellers carry a
small frog amulet with the intent of returning safely home.
Gardenia
This flower represents happiness, elegance, and sophistication.
Gladioli
Gladioli represent preparedness, strength, splendid beauty and love
at first sight.
Goose
The geese on their migration journey during autumn, when the
weather begins to turn cold and plants wither for the winter. This
suggests the Buddhist idea that everything in life is impermanent,
and that all plants and animals are born, reproduce, die, and decay.
They are also a chinese emblem of caution. Wild geese normally
fly in a straight line. When the line is broken it suggests that there
are unusual circumstances beneath them.
Heron
The heron has the habit of standing perfectly still and is therefore
emblematic of Buddhist meditation. Often depicted among lotus
leaves, standing on one leg (it never stirs up the mud), it symbolises
Buddhist purity. Associated with the black crow, it suggests day and
night, good and evil.
Hibiscus
represents continually rejuvenating youth, beauty and bravery.
Hydrangea
The hydrangea is a symbol expressing love, gratitude, and enlightenment.
It is said that the observer can easily get lost in its abundance of beautiful
petals, and thus getting lost in higher thought and reaching enlightenment.
due to its versatility, and beauty, the hydrangea makes an excellent thank
you gift to an unsung hero in our lives.
Iris
The collection of 10th century lyrical prose and poems, Tales of ise,
recounts how a heartsick lover composed poetry to a wild iris in
place of his lost love. Since then the iris has come to symbolise
romance and heroism. It is also a potent symbol against evil spirits.
Kozuchi (miracle mallet)
The Kozuchi is a legendary Japanese hammer, and translates as
“Small Magic Hammer” or “Miracle Mallet”. The mallet is very
small, and swinging it grants its holder’s wishes. It is a symbol of
good fortune.
Kuniyoshi, Utagawa (c.1797 - April 14, 1861)
Together with Hokusai and Hiroshige, Utagawa Kuniyoshi is known
as one of the greatest Japanese printmakers and a master of imaginative
design, dominating the Japanese print world of the 19th century. The
son of a silk-dyer, Kuniyoshi was initially involved in his father's
business as a pattern designer, it is said that as a child he was impressed
by ukiy_-e warrior print and by pictures of artisans and commoners
depicted in craftsmen manuals, such as those seen in his later works.
His early works include a series of prints of kabuki actors and warriors,
as well as a series of pictures of beautiful women, known as bijinga,
in which he experimented with large textile patterns and light-andshadow
effects found in Western art. In the 1820s he was finally
accepted into the important ukiy_-e circle, with his first major
commission, ‘One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the popular Suikoden’
based on the popular chinese tale, the Shuihu zhuan. Kuniyoshi
continued to draw many of his subjects from traditional tales of war,
but with an added stress on dreams, ghostly apparitions, omens and
superhuman feats, themes which satisfied the public’s interest in the
ghoulish, exciting and bizarre. In the 1840s Kuniyoshi’s critical view
of the shogunate won him further favour with a politically dissatisfied
public through a series of caricature prints in which disguised actors
and courtesans were portrayed, at a time when illustrations of
courtesans and actors in Ukiy_-e were officially banned. He also
produced more naturalistic works of animals, birds and fish, parodies
of traditional Japanese and chinese painting, and a series of landscape
views incorporating Western shading, perspective and pigments. Later,
he experimented radically with composition, magnifying visual
elements in the image for a dramatic, exaggerated and quite modern
effect, still seen today in Japanese manga illustrations. The fantastic
and dynamic prints by Kuniyoshi were brought to the fore in a recent
exhibition at the royal Academy and Sotheran’s is very fortunate to
have several of his prints in this exhibition.