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Original Number

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42

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ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR THIS DESIGN

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Currently Documented Edition Signature and Seal Markings:

Edition I:

楽山居

Raku-zan Kyo

+ Seal A

[For illustration of seals listed by seal code letter, see the Seals article. For edition characteristics applicable to this series as a whole, see the Edition article.]

Design History:
This woodblock print was produced from an original painting on silk dating from the late 1920s whose current location is unknown. The indentification of this design as number 42 is original to Rakusan who published the print as the 42nd design in his series of one hundred woodblock prints called 楽山花鳥畫譜, Rakuzan Kachou Gafu, lit. 'Rakusan's Flower and Bird Print Series'.

Rakusan announced the upcoming publication of 42 in the delivery documents for installment twenty which was distributed December 28, 1930. 42alt, a woodblock print of an alternate sketch of the same design subject, was included in installment twenty as a preview advertisement. Printing and publication of the first print run of approximately two hundred copies of 42 was in January 1931 in installment twenty-one (of fifty). (The exact printing and publication days are unknown since no copies of the installment twenty-one delivery documents have yet been located.) It is unclear if an additional edition I printing of 42 was made before mid 1933 when the series was completed and all edition I printings ceased. The copy illustrated here is typical of edition I.

No later edition printings of 42 are currently documented. Edition I copies of 42 with city-name stamps (see below) show that edition I copies were still available for sale after World War II. Because Rakusan did not typically reprint until more copies were needed, 42 would not have been reprinted in the pre-war edition II period. It remains possible that an as yet undocumented edition III reprinting of 42 could have been made.

There is a printing flaw in 42 in the lower left portion of the composition. The privet leaves are all underprinted in yellow and were all supposed to be overprinted in green. A bent-leaf shape immediately below the main branch remained the underprinted yellow, presumably because the required area on the green block was accidentally carved away. This flaw remains uncorrected on all known copies.

Historical Note: It is possible that original printing blocks for 42 are shown in historic photographs from the 1948 visit to Japan of Helen Keller (1880-1968). The bottom photograph on page 2 of the well-known Foster Rakusan booklet (q.v.) shows Rakusan, his wife, and three of their children, all in traditional Japanese costume, displaying wooden printing blocks to Helen Keller and her companion Polly Thomson. This photograph was taken in one of the public rooms of the Miyako Hotel in eastern Kyoto on October 11, 1948. At the time of this visit Japan was still occupied by United States armed forces. Miss Keller was such a high-profile and important visitor that the occupation authorities refused permission for her to meet Rakusan at his studio. Therefore, Rakusan took his family and these woodblocks to the hotel where Miss Keller was staying. The Foster caption reads: 'At left is the famous Helen Keller, who is deaf, mute and blind, feeling one of the wood carved blocks, with hours of patient carvings to reproduce the pictures in this book.' The large size of the blocks indicates that they are likely from the 100 Series, but the identification of the particular design may not be possible from this photograph alone. However, it appears that Rakusan gifted Miss Keller with a copy of 100 Series design 42 which suggests he may have brought blocks for that design to their meeting. The documented copy of 42 associated with the collection of Helen Keller is from edition I and has a city-name stamp. It was sold with other items from her estate in 1969, the year after her death.

Copies in Public Collections:
Edition I: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; (1951) 51.2482 [not illustrated online].

Species Illustrated:
Evergreen Privet, Ligustrum japonicum, is today usually called 鼠の小枕, , ねずみのこまくら, ネズミノコマクラ, nezumi no ko-makura, lit. 'rat's little pillow'. Instead Rakusan wrote 鼠のまくら, nezumi no makura, lit. 'rat's pillow', a variation which omitted the diminutive adjective.

Included in the composition at the bottom, but not mentioned in the title-caption, is a spray of Japanese Red Cedar (or Peacock Pine), Cryptomeria japonica, 杉, sugi, which is a native Japanese tree widely used for timber and for landscape plantings.

Narcissus Flycatcher, Ficedula narcissina, 黄鶲, きびたき, キビタキ, ki-bitaki, lit. 'yellow-flycatcher', is a Japanese native species. The birds are shown as a mated pair, the drab female and the brightly colored male.