These five woodblock prints
are the work of
Nakayama Tadashi
whose prints often feature
splashes of many
colors, woven into shapes
of almost surreal
horses and birds.
Since he began making
woodblocks fifty years
ago, Nakayama
has, to date, completed only
about two-hunded and fifty prints.
His
techniques are quite laborious, sometimes
requiring more
than fifteen blocks, forty
or more colors and involving fifty
stages in the printing process.
I believe it was in 1964 that Time magazine
carried a story of this artist and his works
and
a Nakayama horse print was the cover feature.
Four of his horse prints are
presented here
together with one of three
birds in flight.