Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その2)「河」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.2: River (Kawa))

Contemporary Woodblock Print

A fabulous print by Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その2)「河」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.2: River (Kawa)). A dark, winding river snakes across Shiomi’s sharply perspective-drawn ochre ground, its fluid curves cutting through the rigid geometry of the surrounding plane. Set beneath a deep earthen-red sky, the river becomes almost calligraphic in form, turning a familiar landscape feature into a bold study of movement, contrast and space. 🌊 

• Year & Edition: 1998 · Ed. 5/10 (signed, titled & editioned in pencil).
  
• Series: 見立て百景 (One Hundred Views of Mitate) · No.2.
  
• 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. Mitate (見立て) refers to seeing something familiar in a new way, or discovering another meaning within an established image or motif. In River, Shiomi reduces the landscape to two opposing visual languages: the ordered, perspective-drawn lines of the ochre ground and the free-flowing black course of the water. As No.2, it is one of the very earliest works in the series and already establishes the red, ochre and black visual vocabulary that would become central to One Hundred Views of Mitate.

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]