| Seven Samurai and the Bicentennial| |  | | This series of seven prints hangs in the hallway on the second floor that connects the old building to the newer addition. The following is a description of the origin and inspiration for the series. The description, which is mounted, framed and hung with the seven prints, is signed by Mary and Norman Tolman, who commissioned the works. Information about each piece was taken from the original description and accompanies the pictures of the prints below. | | | At the beginning of this year we read an appeal from the chairman of the U.S. Bicentennial Commission urging Americans to become participants rather than mere spectators in this historic year-long celebration.
From Tokyo, one tends to feel only remotely connected with happenings in the USA. Yet somehow that appeal struck a patriotic soft spot and we began to think of how we could make a unique contribution to our country’s 200th birthday.
Seven Samurai and the Bicentennial is the result. We felt that by bringing together seven of Japan’s outstanding artists in one portfolio, we would not only fulfill out original purpose—the commemoration of the event—but at the same time we would accomplish two other goals. One would be a further contribution to cross-cultural communications through graphic art, which transcends the need for words; the other would be to provide a record of the techniques and artistic skills which Japanese artists have attained in the year 1976.
We called the portfolio by its particular title to identify it instantly as being of Japanese origin. Just as samurai were known for their exemplary devotion to their code, so can these present-day Japanese artists be commended for upholding their ideals of creativity, originality, and perfection of technique.
This portfolio includes silkscreen, mixed media, woodblock, lithograph, and photo-etching prints, each of which represents the artist’s usual and recognizable oeuvre, with only the theme of the Bicentennial being suggested to him.
On the happy occasion of America’s Bicentennial, we are delighted to provide these seven stars to add their glitter to the festivities.
(Signed) Mary and Norman Tolman
April 18, 1976 Tokyo
Edition 11 of 200 |
| | | |  | | Artist: Sekine Yoshio
Title: 409-S
Year: 1976
Edition: 11 of 200
Medium: Silkscreen
The lowly abacus has been elevated as an art form by Sekine, who has painted it over 400 times in oil over the past 20 years, and made more than a dozen prints of it. This print is composed of three abaci, the one to the left reading 1776, the one to the right reading 1976, and the large one in the center 200, marking the Bicentennial. | | | | |  | | Artist: Miyashita Tokio
Title: Where It All Began
Year: 1976
Edition: 11 of 200
Medium: Mixed Media
Paul Revere, the belfry arch of the Old North Church, “two if by sea,” the Somerset man-of-war, even the spires from the green of some Middlesex village, all appear in this work, which could possibly serve as an illustration of Longfellow’s famous poem. Miyashita works in his usual combination of woodblock and intaglio. | | | | |  | | Artist: Taniguchi Shigeru
Title: Meeting of the Minds
Year: 1976
Edition: 11 of 200
Medium: Lithograph
This new face on the international art scene has employed the Declaration of Independence as the background of his view of America. Over it he has superimposed the famous painting of the Minds of the time—Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson—whose own minds met in the forging of this document. Subtly embossed is the word “FREE” to indicate America’s proudest possession. | | | | |  | | Artist: Iwami Reika
Title: Liberty Bell
Year: 1976
Edition: 11 of 200
Medium: Woodblock
This only woman samurai in our group is equal in both personal strength and power of composition to anyone. Yet the purity and austerity of her work belies its force. How perfectly suited she is to have depicted the Bell, whose own power to symbolize Liberty overrides the now-famous crack in its side. | | | | |  | | Artist: Yoshida Katsuro
Title: Half-way
Year: 1976
Edition: 11 of 200
Medium: Photo-etching
There are so many ways that Japanese can look at America, and Yoshida has chosen the Perry Monument as his vantage point. This memorial commemorates the landing of Commodore Perry in Japan in 1853, the halfway point in America’s history. While standing on it, Yoshida can see half-way to America, he says. | | | | | | Print is missing from the collection | | Artist: Yayanagi Tsuyoshi
Title: America
Year: 1976
Edition: 11 of 200
Medium: Silkscreen
It is amazing that this well-known artist has been able to sum up so much of America’s 200 years in one sweeping portrayal—from the 13 original colonies to skyscrapers, to both blasting-off and splashing-down astronauts, the proud red, white and blue American eagle, and the five Great Lakes, which when inverted form the antlers of the moose. Yayanagi’s prints always contain fabulous birds and animals, and seldom fail to include voluptuous breasts, as they do here—“for Japanese, a very important symbol of America,” says the artist. | | | | |  | | Artist: Kuremoto Toshimatsu
Title: Made in USA
Year: 1976
Edition: 11 of 200
Medium: Silkscreen
This young artist, now an instructor at Osaka University of Fine Arts and a student of the famed Izumi Shigeru, celebrates the Bicentennial with 50 American flags—7 rows of 7 and the entire composition serving as the 50th. To Kuremoto’s age group, born after the war, “Made in USA” must seem as ubiquitous as “Made in Japan” seems to Americans. These same little red, white and blue flags, denoting country of origin, appear on an overwhelming number of products throughout Japan, offering proof of the voluminous trade between our two countries, and making our flag as well known to Japanese as their own. |
|
|
