Akira Kurosaki - 王子紙の博物館 (Oji Paper Museum)

Modern | Sōsaku Hanga Woodblock Print

A lovely print by Akira Kurosaki: 王子紙の博物館 (Oji Paper Museum). Rather than depict the museum literally, Kurosaki builds the image around the history and material of paper itself. Flowering mitsumata - one of the traditional fibres used for Japanese paper - rises through the upper left beside its own みつまた label, while folded white paper forms occupy the centre and coloured slips carry 紙の博物館 (Paper Museum) and 東京 (Tokyo). At the bottom, a small red factory silhouette refers back to Oji’s history as the birthplace of Japan’s modern papermaking industry. These elements are set within Kurosaki’s familiar textured fields, black planes and sharp lines of colour. A particularly fitting subject for an artist whose practice was so closely bound to woodblock, handmade paper and the physical qualities of print. 📄🌿

• Year & Edition: 1992 · Ed. of 100 (83/100) (signed & titled in pencil to plate).
• Medium: Woodblock. 8 blocks, 17 colours - printed on Echizen Hosho paper.
• Dimensions: Sheet approx H: 63.00 cm × W: 45.00 cm (Image H: 51.00 cm × W: 34.50 cm).
• Condition: Stunning. Beautifully crisp, as new. Well stored over the years.
• Notes: Oji Paper Museum was commissioned for the Japan Print Association’s print portfolio 東京百景 (One Hundred Views of Tokyo), produced between 1989 and 1999. One hundred artists were invited to create one print each depicting the rapidly changing city of Tokyo, with Kurosaki choosing the Paper Museum in Oji, Kita-ku, as his subject. The museum was founded in 1950 on the site associated with Japan’s early modern paper industry and preserves the history, materials and culture of papermaking. Raisonné No. 452, (W437). 黒崎彰の全仕事 (The Complete Works of Akira Kurosaki: Catalogue Raisonné 1965-2006).

About the Artist

Akira Kurosaki (1937-2019) was a pioneering mokuhanga artist who fused traditional Japanese woodblock techniques with bold abstraction and surreal landscapes, rendered in his signature deep reds, purples and blacks. A graduate of the Kyoto Institute of Technology and devoted to the sōsaku hanga ethos - overseeing every stage of production himself - he earned the Florence Biennale Gold Prize and Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure. From 1987 he taught and led the Printmaking Department at Kyoto Seika University, mentoring a generation of printmakers; his work is held by the British Museum, MoMA and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. [ ← View All Works by Akira Kurosaki]