Hanga Treasure Chest: Print #16


Bird and Bamboo

(unknown designer)

Enlargement | Technical Notes | Discussion on this print/story | Send this print as an E-Card

Back to a more traditional image this time, after our foreign 'adventures' with the previous two prints!

This print has its origins in a similar fashion to one of the earlier prints in this Treasure Chest series - the one depicting tea ceremony utensils; both of them were created as copy models for aspiring brush painters.

Nature studies make up by far the largest part of that genre, and as both bamboo and birds are considered fundamental elements, something that must be learned by every painter in that style, scenes like this one are very common. I think that this one, with its somewhat weather-beaten and tired-looking bamboo leaves, suits this late summer mood quite well ...

About five years ago, when I was making my first Surimono Album, I included a print with my interpretation of a painting of bamboo plants. It was a bit of an experiment for me, and I was quite apprehensive about how the collectors would accept it - it seemed to me to be quite 'bare' and somewhat boring.

As it turned out, my concern was completely misplaced; that print was the hit of the series that year. I wonder if this one will have a similar enthusiastic reception!

As you have seen by now, this print series is being made up of both prints with explicit seasonal connections, and those of a more general nature. I see though, that there are now only eight more prints to go in the Treasure Chest, and yet we will have to jam into those eight spaces the entire range of autumn and winter!

So I hope that you are ready to pick yourself up after a lazy summer and dive right into the best season of the year. I'm on the way already!

Just about exactly two weeks from today is chushu no meigetsu (Autumn Full Moon); can you perhaps guess what you will see when you open the next package?

David

Monday, September 5, 2005