Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その74)「片隅の椿」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.74: Wallflower, Camellia (Katasumi no Hana))

Contemporary Woodblock Print

A fabulous print by Nana Shiomi: 見立て百景 (その74)「片隅の椿」 (One Hundred Views of Mitate No.74: Wallflower, Camellia (Katasumi no Hana)). A single white camellia enters from the far edge of the composition, set against Shiomi’s characteristic deep red and ochre perspective. Its cropped placement and the large expanse of empty space give the print a strikingly quiet, asymmetrical balance.

• Year & Edition: 2006 · Artist Proof (A.P.) (signed, titled & inscribed in pencil).
  
• Series: 見立て百景 (One Hundred Views of Mitate) · No.74.
  
• Medium: Woodblock.
  
• Dimensions: Sheet H: 46.00 cm × W: 46.00 cm (Image H: 34.00 cm × W: 34.00 cm).
  
• Condition: Lovely. Mount line where previously framed. 
  
• Notes: 見立て百景 (One Hundred Views of Mitate) is Nana Shiomi’s series of one hundred woodblock prints, begun in 1998 and completed in 2016. Shiomi presents familiar objects, motifs and symbols within a distinctive visual world of earthen reds, yellow ochres and sharply receding perspective. Mitate (見立て) centres on seeing something familiar in a new way, and here Shiomi places the camellia quite literally in the corner of the picture. The Japanese title Katasumi no Hana refers to a flower in a corner, while Shiomi’s English title, Wallflower, Camellia, adds a witty second meaning to the isolated bloom. Its natural form and bright green leaves sit deliberately at odds with the otherwise empty, ordered space.

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]