[modernly supplied title]
笹百合に杉と草
sasayuri ni sugi to kusa
Bamboo Lily with Red Cedar and Grass
ササユリに杉と草
Edition I (only edition): | 篁子生 | Kou-shi-sei | + Seal A |
The signature 楽山篁子生, Raku-zan Kou-shi-sei, which is found on most later woodblock prints, first occurred on a fan design in this print 104-1. Although this is its first occurrance in this series, the signature was previously published on the 36 Series designs 102 and 103, and also is found on 104.
[For illustration of seals listed by seal code letter, see the Seals article.]
Series History and Definitions:Rakusan arranged the Fan Series prints into shared-subject groups typically consisting of one design in each of five different fan silhouette shapes. Each of these groups of Fan Series designs are united by a corresponding polychrome 36 Series design which defines the subject. Each shared-subject Fan Series group and its 36 Series design together comprise a theme (画題, gadai).
Rakusan did not include the Fan Series in his main sequence numbering. Therefore, the original number used for each of the 36 Series prints has been modified to identify the Fan Series members of its theme. The five different fan silhouette shapes have been here assigned arbitrary numbers 1 through 5. To indicate a fan design these shape designations are added to the 36 Series number separated by a hyphen. In themes which contain duplicated fan shapes, one has been arbitrarily designated A and the other B. 104-1 indicates that this is a Fan Series design with fan shape 1 in the 104 Lily theme. Like all other designs in this series, 104-1 was only produced in a single print run, and few copies are currently documented.
Copies in Public Collections:The Fan Series woodblock prints of the 104 Lily theme were distributed in early 1934 in installment two (of twelve). The delivery documents for installment two remain to be discovered, but its delivery month was either February, March, or April 1934, and the woodblock prints would have been printed during the same month as the publication.
Description:The composition of 104-1 includes a single lily stem with a fully opened flower and a couple of leaves. Entering from upper left are a few sprigs of red cedar and three leaves of an unidentified grass. The open flower most of the other elements are shown silhouetted, but the flower has internal lines - essentially a line drawing with the solid background darkened out. Some of the leaves are shown as simple lines on that background. This design is not a true negative since the flower in life is a very pale color. This design is one of several early designs where Rakusan struggled with his ishizuri techniques.
The woodblock print of 104-1 was modeled closely on an actual-size original sumi sketch which although lost can be reconstructed by digitally reversing the image of the woodblock print:
![]() 104-1 as originally drawn (reconstruction) |
Japanese Red Cedar (or Peacock Pine), Cryptomeria japonica, 杉 sugi, is a native Japanese tree which is widely used for timber and for landscape plantings.
The common name for grass is 草, くさ, kusa. It is probably not possible to identify the species of grass with any great confidence. (Note that the same grass is used in a similar way in the composition of 104.)
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104-2 | 104-3 | 104-4 | 104-5 | 104 |
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69 |
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42 | 99 |