Sosaku senshu zuanshu [A Collection of Designs for Textile Dyeing]

£3,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An exquisite portfolio of woodblock printed textile designs by Fujii Tatsukichi (1881-1964), a pioneering craftsman of the twentieth century. As well as being a painter, Fujii was an unusually multidisciplinary craftsperson, and his practice spanned printmaking, ceramics and lacquer. He entered the working world at a very young age – in fact only after finishing elementary school – and starting his career at a cotton wholesaler. This work took him to Korea, and when he returned to Japan he decided he wanted to study painting at an arts university. Sadly his father would not allow it, so instead he joined a different company, this time Happori Shippo-ten in Nagoya. This was a shop that handled a variety of beautiful shippo (cloisoné) objects, made in Japan and overseas. Once again his work took him overseas, next to America for the Lewis and Clark Exposition where the company was exhibiting some objects. His time in America left an enormous impact him, both in terms of his growing interest in Western art and aesthetics, and for his appreciation of Japanese crafts which he saw exhibited in American museums. Returning to Japan, he set his sights on becoming an artist/craftsman, and from around 1906 he devoted himself first to lacquer and shippo, then later to other disciplines such as papermaking and printing. Alongside his own practice, Fujii was very active in the promotion of traditional crafts in Japan, successfully campaigning for crafts to be included in contemporary natio

• Binding: Hardcover

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