Bakufu Ohno Familiar Fishes Of Nippon Ugui

Titled with a reference to Bakufu Ohno's "Familiar Fishes of Nippon" series, this woodblock print depicts an ugui, a Japanese dace fish found in freshwater rivers and streams across the country. Ohno Bakufu (1888-1976) produced the celebrated "Familiar Fishes of Nippon" series of fish prints that combined scientific observation with artistic beauty, rendering each species in meticulous detail against plain backgrounds. The ugui is a silver-scaled fish with reddish lateral stripes during spawning season, and Ohno's treatment gives the specimen a lifelike presence on the printed page. Fish prints occupy a distinctive niche in Japanese art, bridging natural history illustration and fine art in a way that reflects Japan's deep cultural relationship with its marine and freshwater fauna.