Artist · 6 prints
Shibata Zeshin Prints
About Shibata Zeshin
Shibata Zeshin was a Japanese lacquer artist and painter, born in Edo (now Tokyo) in 1807 and died in 1891. At eleven he was apprenticed to the lacquer master Koma Kansai, and he later studied painting in the Shijō school, a style rooted in close observation of nature, under Suzuki Nanrei, and in Kyoto under Okamoto Toyohiko. His long career ran from the late Edo period into the Meiji era, when Japan opened to the West.
Shibata Zeshin is remembered for being a master of two crafts at once. He made lacquer boxes, trays and food containers with witty, natural designs, and he developed urushi-e, painting with coloured lacquer on paper and silk so that it stayed flexible enough to roll as a scroll. His subjects are often small and everyday: insects, plants, kettles and seasonal scenes, drawn with humour and lightness. In 1890 he was among the first artists appointed Imperial Household Artist. Large groups of his work are held by the Khalili Collections, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tokyo National Museum.
Shibata Zeshin prints: reproductions of Japanese lacquer paintings and ink paintings by Shibata Zeshin, made in the late Edo and Meiji periods of the nineteenth century. Works in the collection include Butterflies (1881), Tiger (1888), Peonies, Crows at Dusk and a scene from the Noh play Hachinoki.
This selection concentrates on Zeshin's nature subjects: butterflies, peonies, a tiger and crows at dusk, painted with restrained colour on plain grounds. The Noh scene adds one of his theatre subjects. Butterflies, Peonies and Tiger are also offered together as a set of three, chosen to hang side by side.
The calm subjects and quiet colour suit bedrooms, studies, hallways and reading corners, and the set of three works well along a narrow wall or above a bed. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
