Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その15)「橋」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.15: Bridge (Hashi))

Contemporary Woodblock Print

A fabulous print by Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その15)「橋」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.15: Bridge (Hashi)). A long wooden bridge sweeps dramatically across the composition, its repeating posts and boards pulling the eye deep into an otherwise empty landscape. 🌉

• Year & Edition: 1999 · Ed. 5/10 (signed, titled & editioned in pencil).
  
• Series: 見立て百景 (One Hundred Views of Mitate) · No.15.
  
• 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 remarkable series of one hundred woodblock prints, created between 1998 and 2016. The title refers to mitate (見立て) - the practice of seeing one thing as another, or finding new meaning in something familiar. Shiomi repeatedly places recognisable motifs from Japanese culture within her characteristic earthen-red and ochre spaces, encouraging them to be reconsidered from a contemporary perspective. The bridge has particular significance within Japanese visual and theatrical culture as a symbol of passage and connection between different realms. Shiomi has discussed bridges as linking opposites such as dream and reality, or shigan (此岸, this shore) and higan (彼岸, the other shore), while also drawing attention to the bridge-like hashigakari of Noh theatre through which spirits enter the world of the living. In Bridge, a simple architectural form therefore becomes an image of transition, connection and the boundary between realities.

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]