Edo Animal Prints

circa 1950. Woodblock print in black and gray ink on Japon laid paper, 10 1/4 x 15 3/4 inches (260 x 398 mm), full margins. With the artist's embossed chop mark in red ink in the l...

Mid-Century coloured woodblock print of 'ploughing the fields' by 20th century Japanese artist Ini Kumo. The print is hand-signed in pencil, dated 1966 and numbered 130/700 to the bottom right and presented under glass in a black wooden frame. A beautiful woodblock printed image of a Japanese farmer in traditional attire ploughing the land with his ox. It is early evening and as the sun goes down it casts long shadows in front of the two figures. Perhaps the farmer is on his way back to the houses grouped in the distance already in shadow. The artist has carefully picked out areas of vibrant green and blue to give energy and colour to the image which contrast against the black of the ox. A thoroughly enchanting image. Ini Kumo is a recognised Sõsaku-hanga artist. His work is included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Sōsaku-hanga (創作版画, "creative prints") was an art movement of woodblock printing which was conceived in early 20th-century Japan. It stressed the artist as the sole creator motivated by a desire for self-expression, and advocated principles of art that is "self-drawn" (自画 jiga), "self-carved" (自刻 jikoku) and "self-printed" (自摺 jizuri). As opposed to the parallel shin-hanga ("new prints") movement that maintained the traditional ukiyo-e collaborative system where the artist, carver, printer, and publisher engaged in division of labor. The birth of the sōsaku-hanga movement was signaled by Kanae Yamamoto...