Catalog (175)

Dramatic kanji, sun and splash--this small print epitomizes the Maki style at its height. The kanji streaks across the print, now it is blue now it is black.There is a strong black sun and a sharp yellow plash--and the Maki seal. Yet it is not crowded. The Maki seal at the right is a roll, the Maki of his name.

Haku Maki was a well-known Japanese print maker of the second half of the 20th century. About 20 of his workw I called Big Red and a few Big Blue or Big Green. This is one of the rare Big Blue prints. By my reckoning he did about three true Big Blues, this is one of them. Until this true image appeared I only knew of a catalogue image which we enhanced into a nice blue here in Beijing. This is the Real Deal. The strokes of the kanji are strong and vibrant Yet the image is cramped on the paper, as if Maki could not afford the paper! More often than not Maki’s big prints had a black sun: this one lacks that sun. and lacks a splash. It surely fills up the space. The image in the print is kanji for heart; to make life easier for his fans who read Chinese or Japanese, Maki put the hiragana for the image in the bottom margin. It reads kokoro which is Heart Edition: 7/58 Image Size: 19 X 19 inches. This print was published in 1973. The crowded nature of this print is not unique. Maki did a few in 1973 that were also of this style.

These are three images of a very rarely seen Maki series,the Drop series.If any friend can send me images of Drop 1, 4, or 5, I would appreciate it.

In 1971 Haku Maki produced this large print, Poem 71-25. It was an edition of 100. This new arrival was produced in Tokyo and went ultimately to Florida in the US. It stayed there for a long time. In the course of its life there it was not treated nicely: It was folded in two places. The print had foxing, it had many ailments. Then it finally made it to my restorer. It had challenges there too: some liquid spilled on it, forcing a delay in the restoration process. It was painstakingly and carefully restored to its original beauty but it now tells a story a brand new print could not tell. It stayed in Oregon for six months. Then it finally left and zoomed out to me in Beijing. It arrived without warning. It is a very dramatic print It is a very Big Red and it appears very rarely. 21” x 32” 63/100 The red ink looks as if it were put on in thick strips, separate from the paper, and the "black sun” is shimmering. The last three frames show how this print looked at the time of purchase. NOTE: This is the print that my husband chose for the cover of his book, The Life and Works of Haku Maki.

In the 1960s, Haku Maki was beginning his career as a modern print maker. He used ersatz titles for different series of prints: Cell, Animal Song for the Zodiac, Proportion, Work, Figure,and Emanation. Flower Song was another. Here we show Flower Song 6, which I have just acquired, and Flower Song 3 which I have owned for a long time The others are not noteworthy. This one measures 13 x 17in/48 x 34cm.

Around 1960 Haku Maki probably did the Ox as a woodblock print. He was then a young artist in Tokyo. He may have done some Ox images before James Michener did his now wellknown book, but probably not many: 510 were used in the book The Modern Japanese Print". The prints of Japanese artists included in the book are large-ish, it is not embossed. The print is in excellent shape--it is still tipped onto the original archival backing that was in the book. In 1999 toward the end of his life, Maki did the print again; undoubtedly he did a new block and ran it off. This was an edition of just 75. Here I show the old and the new Ox prints; old is at the left. The appearance of Ox in this book presaged Maki doing 21 prints in Festive Wine by 1969, including an Ox. That one seems almost to have been dancing. 19” x 12”

This print is 13 inches wide x 20 75 tall. it is a spectacular Big Blue. The kanji reads words to the effect Give an inch, take a mile. Maki produced this print in 1971. It is number30 of 105.

22 31 This huge image was done in 1983 as a silk screen print. Condition is excellent overall except for tape remnants at the very top. These will not come through and will not affect the print when framed or shown to friends. The white circle sometimes called a Sun, shimmers as it does in many Maki prints. 27" x 31", 41/60 No chop For shipping Packed between two strong pieces of plywood.

Haku Maki was undoubtedly Japan’s most prolific print maker of the second half of the 20th century. Many of his works were serious works of kanji and also ceramics. These three are perhaps a bit frivolous. They are actually pretty: each one has seeming globs of color The blue one on the left has kanji in the blue stone; the central one has a wonderful black kanji for Mountain in the center; and the one on the right four globs, each of a different color. And one splash.

The image on the left was done in 1970 the other in 1971. The image at the left looks like 2 or 3 quick brush strokes. It is very delicate. It can mean clothing. The image at the right is heavy, many brush strokes, a complicated kanji. It can mean depression. It is Poem 71-14.

(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.

In The Life and Works of Haku Maki I refer fairly briefly to his Big Reds and other large prints of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In this Research Note I present a more thorough compendium of this type of image and commentary. If any readers know of an image which should be in this Note, please let me know. For now please enjoy these. Poem 70-63 (Me) was acquired in 2010. Poem 71-90 ed of 108 Dance 69-2 NOTE: This is the first part of a two-part note. The second part is Note 7 B.

These are 3 different “takes” of the kanji for Stone. Red is Work 74-58 (Stone) ; Green is 76-56 (Stone); Blue is 76-54 (Stone). The green one is larger than the other two. All have the striking black sun as one stroke of the kanji.

Haku Maki (1924 to 2000) was an important late 20th Century Japanese printmaker. He created images often using kanji (originally: Chinese characters) as the theme for his prints. He created about 2000 different images. Many are known. Here I present a number of images which I had never seen until this year even as I have gathered many. I still lack the image for Autumn in this series: any assistance in finding it would be most appreciated winter was formerly in the John and Joyce Meyer Collection in Seattle. The last image is of a 1972 Maki rendering of all four seasons.

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. It might appear that the block used to produce all thee was the same; however, the Blue image is considerably larger than that used for the red and green ones. Blue one is Poem 68-53 12.26" x 16.25"

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. Both prints have had hard lives, they were actually folded. Now they have been wonderfully restored.

A diptych of Maki prints, one done in 1968 and the other in 1969. In the best of Maki's spartan austere style, they are Poem 68-40 and Poem 69-13.

This Maki Big Red has the Kanji (Chinese character) for Flower as its theme. The Flower is red and strong; it is set off by a black Sun to the right. A blue tear balances the sun on the left. Maki’s seal in red ink paste, is below the tear, also at the left. Although Maki himself printed this image, the ink looks as if it was layered on by hand. This is 133/154; Print size is about 11” x 18”. We note: the paper in this print is smooth, it does not have the moon-surface effect. In 1969 and running just through 1974, Maki did a series of these bold Big Red prints. He did at most 15 Big Reds. One friend has asked did he do Big images in other colors. He only did a smattering in Blue and Green.