These wonderful woodblock prints are the
work of Murakami
whose subjects are taken
from the rural
areas of Japan; fishermen,
children,
carpenters and the like are
treated with
genuine dignity and honesty.
Unfortunately,
I have only these three
examples of Murakami's
work but they
are among my favorites and one
can
sense the happiness and almost
share in the joy of the faces that
leap out from the
prints.
The first print, titled, "Treasure
from the Sea"
is of a fisherman, happily
bringing in his
catch of "fugu" (blowfish).
The second
of Murakami's prints, I call "Matsuri,"
(festival) for it appears to be that of a
grandfather ("ojiisan") carrying the
"apple of
his eye" to the neighborhood
festival. In the last print, Murakami
gives us "The Young
Fishermen."
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woodblock shop just off the Ginza district in
Tokyo years ago when my daughter, Mary
was four years old and my son Nickolas
was nearing his first birthday.
They are both grown now but
in these prints,
I see them as they were then
in that hot,
humid, happy Tokyo summer.
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feature the apprentice geisha, the "maiko."
Maiko and geisha may
still be seen in the
Pontocho area of
Kyoto or sometimes
strolling near the banks of the Kamo River
at dusk. It is a treat to
see the young maiko
as they scurry by quickly,
kimono sleeves
rustling as they move along,
leaving behind
only the faint echo of the
"click, click, click"
made by their "okobo"
(tall wooden
clogs worn only
by maiko).
Today, maiko are dwindling in
number as
are the geisha they aspire to be.
It requires
far less training in musicianship,
dance,
voice training, story telling and social graces
to become a hostess in a Ginza
nightclub and
I imagine that the pay is better
as well!
Soon they will be gone, the maiko
and
the geisha, but here they are, frozen in
time,
by the art of Saito Kiyoshi.
The print on the
left was the first woodblock
print I ever
obtained and it started me on my
collection -
it is of course one of my favorites.
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