Art Institute of Chicago

This woodblock print by Shusui Taki is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the most significant repositories of Japanese prints in the United States. The institution's holdings of shin-hanga and related early twentieth-century Japanese works provide important context for understanding Shusui Taki's contribution to the modern Japanese print movement, and this impression is documented through the ukiyo-e.org image archive that aggregates museum records for scholarly reference.

Shusui Taki worked during a transformative period in Japanese printmaking, when the traditional ukiyo-e system was being reimagined through the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement. Shin-hanga was developed in the early twentieth century largely through the vision of the Tokyo publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, who sought to revive the classical collaborative system of designer, carver, printer, and publisher while updating its subjects and sensibilities for a modern audience that included Western collectors. Watanabe Shozaburo's editorial direction emphasized atmospheric landscapes, refined bijin (beautiful women) portraits, and evocative theatrical and animal subjects, all executed with technical precision that drew on centuries of woodblock craft.

Within this milieu, Shusui Taki contributed work that reflects shin-hanga's characteristic synthesis of traditional technique and modern observation. The Art Institute of Chicago's preservation of this print situates Shusui Taki alongside the broader generation of shin-hanga designers whose impressions entered American and European collections during the first half of the twentieth century, when curators and private collectors recognized the artistic value of the movement.