Paper size
62.5 x 47.7 cm
Publisher
Taninaka Silk Editions
Description
Mark of the fan, from the Genpei series, published in the 80s and 90s. Paper size: 62.5 x 47.7 cm. Number 101 from an edition of 185, self-printed by the artist. Numbered and signed in pencil. This is generally considered the best design from the series, and a.o. appears on the cover of Lawrence's Smith's Contemporary Japanese Prints: Symbols of a Society in Transition.
Condition
Fine impression, colours and condition: in mint condition, the sky printed in silver. Lawrence Smith: "This is one of the Gempei series designed by Takeda to mark the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Dan-no-Ura, the climax of the great civil wars between the Minamoto and Taira families. These wars have been celebrated in literature and art ever since. Takeda has chosen a style which is close enough to the heroic woodblock prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) to satirize them, yet laced with a fantastic eroticism which is mainly absent from those prints but which Takeda implies is present in the way contemporary Japanese look at them. The story so irreverently treated is that of Tametomo. He shot from his horse a fan placed on the mast of a Taira ship by a Taira noblewoman, risking disgrace if he missed. Takeda has placed a naked woman on the mast as well, and filled the sea with shapes suggesting female bodies."
