Hinoe tora goshi ginka kana tsuguru ban katazome egoyomi [Stencil-dyed calendar for the year of the tiger]

£1,250 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An extremely luxurious, and slightly mysterious, katazome calendar. Kamisaki begins this calendar with a portrait of a tiger, to mark the zodiac year. The themes then progress somewhat seasonally, with plum blossom in February and Buddhist figures in August, most likely to mark obon (a national holiday in August where the spirits of ancestors are believed to return to their graves). There is a distinct mix of cultures and themes represented, most of which are familiar in Kamisaki’s other works. For example, we see Western clocks, lamps and coffee-pots. More surprising, perhaps, is the print with a Korean munjado character painting, a Western ship sailing with multiple flags, and the final print which shows a design for a circular stained glass window depicting Adam and Eve. One point of mystery of this calendar is the lack of a limitation or publisher. One therefore assumes that it was privately printed, and privately circulated. This would have been a tremendous expense, as each print is immensely intricate and there is copious use of gold leaf. This calendar is extremely rare. There are no records of it online or copies in OCLC. About the artist: Kamisaki Sunao is (he would be 92 years of age at the time of writing) an extraordinarily gifted artist, who produced several books printed in katazome (stencil-dye). Initially he was trained in Kyo-yuzen , a form of hand-painted textile dyeing specific to Kyoto, apprenticing under Kihachi Tabata (1877–1956), who was awarded Living

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