The Zodiac

This print likely assembles all twelve animals of the East Asian zodiac (juni shi), rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar, into a single composition, arranged in a grid, ring, or radial pattern. Composite zodiac prints are a recurring genre in twentieth-century Japanese printmaking, often produced in connection with new-year customs. Karhu's treatment would apply his flat color and bold black outline vocabulary to each animal in turn, reducing the figures to silhouettes patterned with internal markings rather than rendering them with naturalistic detail. Compared to his single-year zodiac prints, a composite Zodiac image functions as a summary or set piece, gathering the entire cycle on one sheet. The subject sits alongside the smaller group of decorative, non-architectural prints in his oeuvre and reflects the engagement of sosaku-hanga artists with Japanese folk-calendar imagery as a counterpart to their landscape and figure work.