Kamisaka Sekka  (1866 - 1942)   Rimpa Master and Pioneer of Modern Design

Chigusa (a thousand grasses)

Condition report: Slightly creased, stained due to binding face to face (rubbing off).
 Click pictures to view all prints and further condition problems.
Price for the two volumes together,  mounted as leporellos: EUR 4'800.-

2nd edition: Meiji 36 (1903), 4th month, 25th day.
Publisher: Yamada Shinzaburo
Printer: Yamada Yasutaro
Bookseller: Yamada Geishudo

3rd edition: Meiji (1903), 6th month, 1st day.
Publisher: Yamada Shinzaburo
Bookseller: Yamada Geishudo

Vols. 1-3 / First edition by Yamada Unsodo (Kyoto) / 1899-1900, afterwards sold blocks to Geishudo.  Polychrome woodblock prints, printed with anilin colours, gold and silver pigments, blindprinting and tsuya-dashi. 23,6 X 35,5 cm.

The Chigusa collection as it survives today is bound in three volumes, but was not originally published in book form. It was published serially three prints at a time on the 25th of every month from February of 1899 to June of 1900. The three volumes were most liklely compiled and bound at later dates between 1900 und 1905. At the time of the original publication, Sekka was thirty-five years old. It was during this period that he started working as a technician at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts in the Departement of Design Regulation. While he was on the one hand submitting works and receiving awards in exhibitions related to the Kyoto art and craft world, he was also nominated as a judge and was establishing himself in the position of design expert.

When classified by motif, the designs of Chigusa appear to be divisible into the following three types:
1. Detailed depictions of features of classical life, such as fans, hedges, kimono, bound books, human figures, ox-carts and other items.
2. Bold compositions with tightly focused compositions and cropping of motifs such as the moon, grasses, mountains, streams, and other conventional images.
3. Compositions dividing the background space into two or three solid colors with flower patterns in negative unpainted space.

Sekka would not be esteemed as a legitimate successor to the Rimpa tradition until later, but one can already see distinctive Rimpa-style brushwork in Chigusa, particularly in the second and third types of design. The feeling ot the third group of images is reminiscent of Hon'ami Koetsu (1588-1637) and Tawaraya Sotatsu's (?-1643) mica-printed Noh album covers, even though the technique is different.

The Unsodo catalog says, " ... not only is this design collection a valuable model book for craft artists and designers, but it is also indispensable for anyone who enjoys elegance and refinement and loves nature," showing that it was not only a model book for creating designs but was also simply a collection of images that could be enjoyed for the pictures themselves.

Text from the book: Kamiksaka Sekka / Rimpa Master - Pioneer of Modern Design, published by The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; The Asahi Shimbun / 2003 /
ISBN 4-87642-169-2