Persimmon and Western Pear

Persimmon and Western Pear is a Japanese woodblock print by Toru Mabuchi that pairs the traditional Japanese persimmon (kaki) with a Western-style pear, presenting them together as a single still life subject. The pairing is small but telling: it places a fruit closely identified with Japanese autumn alongside one imported and cultivated more recently in Japan, and Mabuchi treats both with equal compositional respect. As a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) (creative print) artist, Mabuchi personally designed, carved, and printed his own blocks, and that hands-on method is what gives his still lifes their characteristic unity; drawing, carving, and inking are all controlled by a single hand and read as one decision. The Japanese woodblock medium handles the subject well; the rounded persimmon and the more tapered, elongated pear translate into clean carved shapes, restrained color, and the small surface variations that signal hand printing. Mabuchi's preference for spacious arrangement is on view here, with each fruit allowed enough surrounding space to register as its own form within the design. The print fits naturally alongside Mabuchi's other persimmon-and-pear studies (including the Ohmi-archived 柿と洋梨 impression) as part of a recurring compositional pairing he returned to across his career. The work is documented through [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org via a Japanese Art Open Database (JAODB) listing (00034780). For collectors of Toru Mabuchi and of postwar sosaku-hanga still life more broadly, this is a particularly clean example of his approach.