Chrisanthem Japanese Wood Block from Kyoto Japan

  
Chrisanthem - Japanese Wood Block from Kyoto Japan. Original wood block print pulled at the Uchida Atelier in Kyoto Japan. The Japanese characters on the print are the artist signature and his descriptive title. The art has been professionally framed using museum grade mats, backing, mounting and UV protection glass.

25.25" x 20.25". The art of the wood cut has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century A. It was imported from China along with the ideas of Buddhism. In fact, the oldest surviving examples of printing in the world today are Japanese woodblock prints executed in the 8th century and containing Buddhist texts and prayers. For roughly 1000 years, woodblock printing in Japan was confined to the creation of exquisitely calligraphed and decorated religious texts, prayers and charms.

Not until the 17th century did Japanese artists turn to the woodblock as a medium for purely creative works of the imagination. In their hands, the art of the wood block print steadily matured during the next 200 or so years.

In expressive content, the imaginativeness of design, in the technical excellence of carving and printing, as well as in the breathtaking beautiful addition of a new element, color. The Japanese wood cut far surpassed what was being done in Europe, or anywhere else in the world. At the same time, the growth of a new school of Japanese art - Ukiyo-e (literally translated as pictures of the fleeting, or passing, world) turned the traditional Japanese woodblock print into a truly popular art form. In the 1860s, Japan was finally opened to the world after centuries of self-imposed isolation and exclusion.

The art of Ukiyo-e woodblock printing burst like an unexpected meteor upon the West, where it had never before been publicly shown. The young radicals and innovators in western art were dazzled, entranced. The influence of Ukiyo-e on their work and thought were soon apparent. Indeed, most critics and historians today agree that the extraordinary revolution in Western art, starting with the impressionists of Paris, stems in great measure from the introduction of Japanese art.

Especially the Ukiyo-e woodblock print, into Europe midway through the Victorian area. Had it not been for this historical accident, the development of what we now call "modern art" might never have occurred, certainly it would not have taken the forms or followed the directions that it did.

Authentication - Collectors guild, LTD. Certifies and warrants that this is an original wood block print pulled at the Uchida Atelier in Kyoto Japan.