The Tretiak Collection

japan. Haku Maki. Big Blue Poem 71-73. Hoko


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Directory: Fine Art: Prints: Pre 1980: Item # 1199373
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In 1971 Haku Maki Japanese Master print-maker was at the height of his creative powers. He had already done several “big” prints and turned his skills to producing dramatic prints. This Big Blue was one. It depicts a war instrument, a halberd. Maki created this design so that it showed how the character was written. He showed us how the stroke order flowed on a woodblock print. The first flowed from lower left corner to the top right, The second stroke flowed from top to bottom, piercing the center of the print. The third stroke comes across the print from right to left. The actual kanji has to have 4 strokes: here the yellow splash should be at the right but Maki put it at the left, to be the 4th stroke. Or was the black sun at the right the 4th stroke? The blue strokes are all covered with lacquer, a frequent Maki touch. (The sun was covered in this lacquer--as was often the case.) The whole print shows off the creative style of the Master, everything fits nicely in the place allocated. The print’s size is slightly smaller than I expected it would be. For many years I had assumed the image was a Blue Woman but I had never seen the bottom margin. When Chinese colleagues saw the print and the bottom margin combined with the image they immediately said it was not Woman but a halberd, a weapon. Maki almost never depicted a weapon. As a Zen Buddhist he seemed to steer clear of military themes. I note the print is not a particularly solemn one. The blue is strong the yellow splash is bright and the sun sizzles. Sanae nakajima helped with the translating of the title. copyright daniel tretiak 2013