Maki Poem 616 earluy print still with single layer of paper. The image is of a Bird and Moon. This print has been fully restored

In 1976 Haku Maki did his eight-volume San Mon Ban--a total of 96 different embossed images. These included many items Maki had just used, would use soon and used later. I first show images of two prints like those in San Mon Ban but slightly larger. Then two images of insects in San Mon Ban and then 4 images of insects long hidden in my archives--even to me. These might all be called Maki Lite...

This note, another of the many Daniel Tretiak wrote in 2015,looks at newly emerged early works of Haku Maki.

In this note, one of three he numbered Note 23, Daniel Tretiak discusses a Big Blue print Poem 69-17 plus another black-and-white Poem 71-84--and how he acquired them.

In the mid-1960s, Haku Maki was firmly launching his career as an important Japanese print maker. He did a series of prints of which a long and key series was the Alphabet A – Z. In turn, the Alphabet was the first series of what came to be many series of prints, all of which Maki called the Poem series. Prints in the Poem series continued to be produced until 1972. He produced all of the Alphabet in 1966 or part of it in that year and part in the next...

This wonderful print was a gift to Daniel Tretiak and me on the occasion of our wedding in June 1964.

In 1971 Haku Maki produced two large prints, one Sun and one Moon. Sun shows a dramatic sun with a red dash all surrounded by a gold field-- Poem 71-100. Poem 72-101 is Moon with a similar design. There is a dark spot in the center. Each print was produced in editions of 156. This pair was offered privately and on eBay by a very insightful seller from Tennessee. After these presumably successful runs Maki did a smaller pair, each with the same title and same design...

In 1968 Haku Maki produced this large Blue image of Child. The blue is vivid and the yellow face is in sharp contrast. To the far right is a small Green Child, the same theme, different key color. It appeared in 1969. The red image is a trial run for a Festive Wine print. It never made it. The translators of Festive Wine or Anne Brannen nixed it and used a different Child image, the fifth frame...

Q R T U V W X Y (*) Z Poem T is a distant Predecessor of image 10 Most if not all the prints in this series were sold through Red Lantern Gallery in Kyoto. missing J K L M N O - other than G and S. U is clearly a predecessor of Poem 59-55

Dan Tretiak chose the following 10 words as the description for this listing: merry christmas to all and to all a good night.

Poem 72-47 (road) 32 X 21.5 inches textured paper The sun is the inner part of the kanji for road. This is a very big and stunning Maki print It was done in 1972 at the height of his artistic powers. It depicts the kanji for Road or Way, e.g.the Way of Taoism (Daoism). As if done with a brush, the character whooshes across the well-textured paper. At the middle of the print, Maki has added a White Sun.

(continued) the last two panels show the same kanji for Rising in two different designs. Maki seemed to have liked this theme. Big Red is Poem 71-50; it was preceded by Poem 70-48 a smaller print. These are shown below.

This note looks at newly emerged prints (in 2015, that is) including Poem 72-110, Poem 70-10, and a work simply called 81-11.

Haku Maki Poem 71 92 - was done in 1971, one of the four years in which Maki did over 100 different prints. In 1971 he did about 5 Big prints – at least two sides are over 30 inches. In his total oeuvre he did 20+ big ones but only one Yellow This is it. It seems to be a single yellow stroke piercing the black; it is also the kanji for Mind in Maki’s mind...

Haku Maki produced this “pair” of prints in 1968. The first image is Child. This is the first time Maki produced an image with Child as a theme. Poem 68-52. The second one is his kanji for Water. Poem 68-53. This image was used again in the set of 21 prints he produced for Festive Wine, which was issued in 1969. The colors in both are strikingly beautiful in these images – as they also are as prints. Maki signed each in white ink, something he rarely did...

Haku Maki did many prints some with interesting backgrounds some not. This modest run of rather large pints had a special black background: it is the texture of old leather. . Maki created and used this technique only in 1981 prints and mainly in persimmons. The persimmons are plump and meaty the green leaves of the fruit are nicely proportioned...

This print contains Japanese hieroglyphics not real kanji. It shows "rain" "day" and maybe a bird. It is 19.3x12.6cm.

The third part of Note 10 looks at the prints Maki probably did in the 1969 to 1975 period but that, at the time of Dan Tretiak's writing this, had not yet come to light.