Okada Yoshio

'Hotaru' - from the Genji Monogatari

It was on my first trip to Japan in 1981 that I saw this print, one of a set of four showing scenes from the Genji Monogatari. It was in a department store art exhibition, and I bought it instantly. During the subsequent years of living in Canada, working in an office and dreaming and scheming about becoming a printmaker, this print was one of the magnets pulling me forward - I wanted to make prints as beautiful as this.

This computer reproduction (scanned from a catalogue photo - the print is too large for my scanner) doesn't do it justice. It's an absolutely gorgeous production - the finest carving and printing that can yet be done.

Mr. Okada lives not too far from my home in a Tokyo suburb. He has a lot of designs waiting in his portfolios ... Hmmm .....