Ōuchi appropriates two images, the Wind God, Fūjin, and what appears to be one of the characters in Tales of the Water Margin from undetermined ukiyo-e artists of the past. The character 道 michi appears to the left of the cube and an unread character on the cube's top surface.
In speaking about Ōuchi's appropriation of images from famous ukiyo-e artists, the Tolmans wrote in 1982: "Ōuchi uses them to evoke the past, but it is his originality that makes them contemporary. First of all, they are not photographs but are completely redrawn by the artist, as he sees them. Secondly, he is not using a woodblock, but portrays them through the etching process in warm, soft colors - rusts, browns, gold - that give them an added poignancy."1
1 People Who Make Japanese Prints, A Personal Glimpse, Mary S. and Norman H. Tolman, Sobunsha, 1982, p. 116-117.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #2143 |
| Title or Description | Road 道 michi |
| Artist | Ōuchi Makoto (1926-1989) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal of the Artist | no seal |
| Publication Date | c. 1978 (print is undated; date given based upon similar dated prints) |
| Edition | 24/80 |
| Publisher | self-published |
| Carver | engraving by the artist |
| Printer | self-printed |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - water stains edge; blue mark bottom left outside image |
| Genre | contemporary |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 17 1/2 x 22 in. (44.5 x 55.9 cm) |
| H x W Image | 10 1/2 x 12 1/8 in. (26.7 x 30.8 cm) area of etching plate |
| Collections This Print | |
| Reference Literature | |
5/23/2021 created
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