Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その14)「雨」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.14: Rain (Ame))

Contemporary Woodblock Print

A fabulous print by Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その14)「雨」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.14: Rain (Ame)). Shiomi transforms falling rain into a dense field of sharp, descending marks, cutting across the strongly receding lines of her characteristic ochre ground. Against the dark earthen-red sky, the rain seems almost physical, creating a striking sense of movement and depth while reducing an everyday natural phenomenon to a bold, graphic pattern. 🌧️

• Year & Edition: 1999 · Ed. 5/10 (signed, titled & editioned in pencil).
  
• Series: 見立て百景 (One Hundred Views of Mitate) · No.14.
  
• Medium: Woodblock.
  
• Dimensions: Sheet H: 46.00 cm × W: 46.00 cm (Image H: 34.00 cm × W: 34.00 cm).
  
• Condition: Mint. Well stored over the years. 
• Notes: 見立て百景 (One Hundred Views of Mitate) is Nana Shiomi’s one-hundred-print series created between 1998 and 2016. Throughout the series, familiar subjects from Japanese life and culture are placed within her distinctive visual setting of deep earthen reds and perspective-drawn yellow ochres. Mitate (見立て) refers to the practice of seeing one thing as another, or discovering a new meaning within something familiar. In Rain, Shiomi strips the subject back almost entirely to line and rhythm: repeated falling marks intersect with the rigid perspective beneath them, turning rain itself into the principal visual structure of the image.

About the Artist

Nana Shiomi (b. 1956, Osaka) is a Japanese printmaker best known for her 見立て百景 (One Hundred Views of Mitate) series. Trained at Tama Art University and the Royal College of Art, Shiomi combines traditional Japanese woodblock methods with a contemporary approach to familiar cultural motifs, exploring ideas of reflection, reversal and mitate - seeing one thing through another. Her work is held by the Victoria & Albert Museum and British Museum, and in 2025 she was awarded Life Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in recognition of her contribution to printmaking. [ ← View All Works by Nana Shiomi]