Catalog: Artisan and Design: Prints (3)

I call this set of images The Zodiac but Maki formally called this Animal Song + the animal name. The actual prints here are Animal Song - Monkey Dog Snake and Dragon. Each print came in an edition of 50 copies. Red Lantern Gallery in Kyoto distributed them. 1968.

14.5" x 21" Edition 95 Mine is Yoseido 1980 Catalogue p 3 Watermark is BKS Rives France 73/95

Flower Song 3 In the Mid-60s Maki did a set of ten different images, entitled Flower Song This is Flower Song 3. It is a very abstract print: it is probably not kanji (Chinese characters); it is similar to prints entitled, say Dance. It could be the character for woman: at the left there may also be the kanji for woman (oona) with a single stroke perhaps penetrating the woman -- but is probably not. The Flower Song images are rare, and when available often either in poor condition or costly. This print is in good but sadly not in pristine condition. The front is fine, the back has a bit of foxing. Still striking image. One Dance images appears in my book, The Life and Works of Haku Maki "Dance 4", p. 37. It was Maki's style to punctuate a print with a splash or as in this case, with a Big Yellow Sun, at the top right. The swaths that make up the print look as if they were done by a big Japanese brush. Whooowh. I date this to having been done in the mid to late 1960s.