Hideo Hagiwara

This is one of the prints out of 36 that I am framing right now for an upcoming exhibit at the Institute of East Asian Studies. I love framing these prints they are just breathtaking. I have so much respect for Hideo Hagiwara.

Mount Fuji is renowned worldwide as Japan's highest and most perfectly shaped mountain. Revered since ancient times by followers of both the Shinto and Buddhist faiths and serving as a metaphor in classical poetry, Mount Fuji has taken on many roles in pre-modern Japan. In more recent times artists have projected a wide range of personal interpretations onto what was once regarded as an eternal, unchanging symbol.

This exhibit highlights prints from Hideo Hagiwara's 'Thirty-six Fujis' (Sanju-roku Fuji) series. Hagiwara, who has a house near Mount Fuji, and thus was able to observe the mountain during different seasons and times of the day, produced the series between 1977 and 1986, continuing a long tradition of representations of this famous mountain.

Hideo Hagiwara is one of the most distinguished woodblock print artists in Japan today. During the course of his long career he has exhibited all over the world and has won numerous prizes. His prints are held by major museums in Japan, the US and Europe, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute, Chicago; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Vienna National Museum of Art.

A selection of Hideo Hagiwara's Japanaese woodblock prints will accompany the Yukimi Kambe Viol Consort's presentation of New Sounds from Old Instruments on March 31, 2006. The accompanying slide show will cover a variety of different modern Japanese artists including Hideo Hagiwara.