"Manten no hoshi" (Stars of the Whole Sky) from 1967 is a late-career Munakata work that turns to the cosmic scale of the night sky filled with stars — a subject that aligned with both his Buddhist interest in infinite space and his later openness to subjects drawn directly from sensory experience. The stars of the whole sky as a subject asked for the opposite of the controlled, iconic figure: an expanse, a multiplicity, a field of scattered light that challenged his compositional instincts to find order in abundance. The result would be characteristic Munakata — finding in the night sky's profusion the same energy he found in a single carved figure.
1960
Woodblock print
Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Woodblock print
1939-68
Woodblock print
1939 (printed 1955)
Woodblock print
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Manten no hoshi (Stars of the Whole Sky) was created by Shiko Munakata (棟方志功) in 1967.
Manten no hoshi (Stars of the Whole Sky) depicts landscapes, night scenes, and abstract.