Title : Kuruma-Ebi- shrimps

Artist : Bakufu Ohno

Date : 1939

Details : More information...

Source : Japanese Art Open Database
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Description : Original Japanese Woodblock Print by Bafuku Ohno, 1888-1976. He was an honored painter and printmaker in Japan, a member of the Hyogo Prefecture Academy of Fine Arts. I believe this print is titled "Shrimp". It is from his famous Great Japanese Fish Picture Collection, circa 1940. This series, my limited research indicates, consists of 72 prints of fresh and saltwater fish & crustaceans. This print is in it's original mat. The actual print dimensions are 16" x 11 1/4 " . This is a gentle print, a study in muted colors of brown, blue, yellow, peach and red. Please take the time to enlarge the photos and appreciate the attention to detail taken on each shrimp. The upper body and head seem simple at first, but are small masterpieces when you stop to examine them. The colors of the background wash and blend beautifully with their subject. Where some of this artist's prints have powdered mica applied to give a fishscale sheen, this print has none. It is a quiet piece. The print itself is in good to very good condition (in my amateur assessment), but there are some flaws to be aware of: PRINT:A piece of paper (marked "Shrimp") was paperclipped to the lower right corner of the mat. I believe the paperclip was there for many years. The margin of the print shows 1/16" or less of a tear, or bunching, from the paperclip. After years of flat storage the mat has discolored or yellowed the print's margin (largest yellowing is 3/8" on the right side). This shows especially on the pale yellow portion of the print's background. Also, the glue used to attached the print to the mat has bleached the print in each upper corner. None of these flaws are visible when the print is in the mat. MAT: The paperclip left an indent on the lower right of the mat and also wore away part of the middle Japanese symbol at the lower right of the mat. The inner left side of the mat has two small but deep creases. Two of the photos in this listing are of the labels, one in English and one in Japanese. They are on the original brown paper wrapping the set of prints were purchased in. They will not be included in this sale, they are for reference photos only. Please notice I have two other prints from this artist listed on ebay - trout and sweetfish. I purchased eight originally. Two have sold, two I am keeping for my collection (goldfish and eel - which is an amazing study in cobalt blue). The remaining print, koi, we are still deciding if we will keep or list. I bought them just down the road at a very small antique shop that also does estate sales. The shop owner told me they came from a local house that had belonged to an elderly couple and they had purchased the prints in Japan. He did not have the time to research them, but suggested I should.

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