About This Print
In this silkscreen print, one of eleven in the artist's MonMon portfolio, a tattooed Edo-era man, naked except for his fundoshi, sits on a hibachi with iron tongs in hand. The charcoal brazier is covered with an intricate design that includes a guardian lion dog and the legendary Phoenix.
MonMon, The Series
"MonMon is Takeda's first collection of prints. In it, he used tattoos as a theme in order to push the need for color in cartoons to new limits. It was the first collection published by this artist who tried to extract art from cartoons." - statement from the artist's website1
In 1976, Takeda won the Bungeishunjū Manga Award (文藝春秋漫画賞 Bungeishunjū Manga Shō) for this print series.
MonMon is an Osaka word for "representational or figurative tattooing."2 This word is also associated with the tattoos of yakuza.
1 The artist's website http://takeda.cooh3.com/works/monmon/indexmon.htm
2 Irezumi: The Pattern of Dermatography in Japan, W. R. van Gulik, E. J. Brill, 1982, p. 26.
2 Irezumi: The Pattern of Dermatography in Japan, W. R. van Gulik, E. J. Brill, 1982, p. 26.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #885 |
| Title/Description | MonMon - kneeling on brazier |
| Series | MonMon もんもん |
| Artist | Takeda Hideo (b. 1948) |
| Signature | pencil Hideo Takeda signed by artist |
| Seal | |
| Publication Date | 1976 |
| Edition | 16 of 150 |
| Publisher | self-published |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - mat burn around image; some toning along edges of print; discoloration upper left margin; toning throughout verso |
| Genre | contemporary - modern manga |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 23 1/4 x 17 3/8 in. (59.1 x 44.1 cm) |
| H x W Image | 15 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (40 x 29.2 cm) |
| Collections This Print | |
| Reference Literature |
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