Red Sun
- Date:
- 1934
- Medium:
- Hand-colored woodblock print
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
A blazing red sun dominates this 1934 hand-colored woodblock print, its crimson disc radiating heat and symbolic weight. Fujimaki Yoshio's choice of subject inevitably evokes the hinomaru, Japan's rising sun emblem, though the print's visual power transcends any single reading. The hand-coloring technique—pigment applied directly to each impression after printing—gives the red a saturated intensity that standard woodblock color passes might not achieve, and ensures that each copy carries slightly different qualities of hue and brushwork. Created during a period of rising nationalism in 1930s Japan, the image sits at an intersection of natural observation, national symbolism, and pure color experimentation.
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.
Red Sun was created by Fujimaki Yoshio (藤牧義夫) in 1934.
Red Sun depicts landscapes and abstract.
