The Zodiac

"The Zodiac" most likely refers to the juni-shi, the twelve animals of the East Asian zodiac — rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar — that recur throughout Japanese visual culture in printed almanacs, surimono, and New Year's imagery. Karhu produced occasional figurative and emblematic prints alongside his architectural work, and a zodiac composition would likely arrange the twelve creatures in a grid, circle, or scroll-like sequence rendered in his characteristic flat planes and heavy black contour. The print probably uses a restricted palette — earth reds, ochres, and sumi black — with each animal stylized into a near-heraldic shape. As a Western artist working entirely within the Japanese mokuhanga tradition, Karhu engaged not only with the scenery of Kyoto but also with its calendrical and folk subjects, situating his practice within the long lineage of Japanese print culture. The zodiac subject connects to a tradition extending from Edo-period surimono through twentieth-century sosaku-hanga reinterpretations of native iconography.