Modern & Contemporary

A sheet of paper, a brush, a knife and a good deal of patience. Japan’s printmakers worked beyond the famous single sheet, too.

Modern and contemporary Japanese prints and e-hon picture books run from the late eighteenth century to the 1950s. E-hon, woodblock-printed books with full-color covers and black-and-white illustration on nearly every page, tell samurai and sumo stories and ghost tales, the life of the monk Shinran, histories of emperors, guides to Buddhist images, flower arranging in the Ikenobo school and Tang poems in Chinese. Later sheets include Daruma fan prints, hanging lanterns, a black umbrella, a kneeling nude and Santoka, the wandering haiku poet.

Paper softened by age, crisp carved line, muted pigment. Open on a library table or framed as a pair, they ask for slow reading.

A ghost story, in woodcut, takes patience.