Ground mineral pigment on cotton, silk, 49 (L) x 27-3/4 (W) inches.. White Tara is the goddess of long life. A small image of Amitabha Buddha is in her crown. Her right hand is in the gift-giving gesture (varada mudra) while her left holds up a peony. In front of her are offerings flanked by Amitayus and Vijaya. Executed in the Kham style.
9.5 x 13.5 in. Print of a landscape with trees hill and houses, multicolored. From series Toto Meisho published originally 1848 (Meji Edition c. 1878).
Woman standing next to tree and hanging robe in black and white.
White squiggly lines on a grey rectangle, orange horizontal stripe, smaller color squiggles beneath it
Freight train on tracks in black and white.
Woodblock print, 19.5 x 26 inches. It shows Chinese workers harvesting fruit that fill the trees in an orchard. A red flag, signifying the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976, waves over heavily laden carts. This is an example of peasant art used as state propaganda. This and images like this originated as gouache paintings done by Chinese peasants. The exhibition of the paintings in France was so successful that the government directed woodblock artists to make exact copies for sale.
Ink and colored pencil on paper, 23-1/2 (L) x 18 (W) inches. A formal, symmetrical composition showing a golden bowl containing a mirror, representing vision (top center), a water-bearing conch representing the sense of taste (left), a pile of fruit indicating smell (right), and a pair of yellow cymbals signifying hearing (center). These all rest on a swirling length of blue and red cloth representing the sense of touch. A visionary landscape is drawn in the background. This is skillfully rendered by an artist with prior training.
Ink and colored pencil on paper, 23-1/2 (L) x 18 (W) inches. This is a formal, symmetrical arrangement depicting a lotus base supporting an endless knot, a pair of golden fish, the wheel of Dharma, the victory banner, the parasol and the conch. A vase for holding the other 7 emblems is assumed to be located behind them. They appear in front of a visionary landscaped flanked by clouds, the sun and moon. this is skillfully rendered by an artist with prior training.
20.5 X 26 in. Woodblock and copper etching. An image of the artist as a Western nun in black merges into an image of Japan's Mount Fuji. The scratches in the image show tension, perhaps inner anger. Noboru seems to have experienced pain in adjusting to life in Western countries. Former student of Toshi Yoshida.
8 X 11 inches. Woodblock print depicting irises and grasshopper.
8.25 x 10.25 in. Famous view of Edo Environs, from hill high near outskirts. From the series Toto Meisho published in 1848."
16.25 x 24 inches. Woodblock print of abstract soft circles and ovals of white and blue, green and back on blue ground.
Cherry trees in rain, figures under parasols walking along river.
Kabuki Scene
16.25 x 20 inches. Painting; Male figure looking up with bamboo in foreground with Chinese script in upper right. The painting shows the scholar Chao, some bamboo, and a calligraphic homage to the scholar. Here, the modern Chinese artist follows in a long and respected tradition of paying homage to a previous painter and poet, and in this way carrying the past into the present. Sometimes, but probably not here, this entails emulating the famous person's own calligraphic style. The sense that the brush, making a stroke on paper, conveys something of the inner spirit of the person holding the brush reappeared in modern Abstract Expressionism.
Woodblock print, 14.25 x 9.75 inches, by Toshi Yoshida. Gray and white abstract in a moire pattern. Toshi based this on the way the old Ukiyo-e masters made mosquito netting in their prints, by printing the vertical lines of the net first, and overprinting that with a block printing the horizontal lines of the net, except that Toshi used wavy lines instead of straight. The result is a complex visual effect. Toshi used this type of pattern as the background in other prints, both abstract and naturalistic.
Woodblock and copper etching, 30 X 21 inches, by Noboru Sawai. Image of a nude woman with body painting holding an umbrella while seated in a wheelbarrow. In the background are an old barn and a copse of trees on Vancouver Island, Canada. It a visual poem or riddle. The artist was a student of Toshi Yoshida before establishing his own studio in Canada.
8.5 x 17 inches. Lithograph. Nude and robed women in bathhouse.
11 x 15 inches. Color woodblock print of large wavy line moves from bottom left to top right. Small areas of intense color. Background of muted brown and gray.
Daimyo procession with banners. Trees in foreground and mountains in background. Red seal on lower right corner.
Three trees against spring sky, figures working in rice paddies, two kites flying and calligraphy.
12 x 9 inch color woodblock print. A pink rectangular face with horns above a blue rectangular face with feet on black ground.
Greenglazed earthenware morturary jar
Earthenware with pigments; mortuary sculpture of two male riders on Chinese-style horses. Elaborate fittings painted on the horses; holes for attachable legs, tails, and ears suggest that parts of the sculpture may have been made of wood.
Small cast figurine of a Bodhisattva on the lotus plinth. Traces of pigment can still be seen on the white ceramic body
