Haku Maki

The White Lotus Gallery is pleased to offer the prints Haku Maki.

Selected available works


Emanation 7-7 14/50	Poem 70-36 (Leaf) 1970 46/145

Born in Ibaragi prefecture in 1924, Maki studied printmaking under both Onchi and Hiratsuka. By the mid 50s his art was attracting attention at international print shows and in 1959 his work was selected along with that of nine other leading print artists to make up James A. Michener's landmark book The Modern Japanese Print. The following year Maki was included in the Art Institute of Chicago show Japan's Modern Prints - Sosaku Hanga. From that time until the present he has ranked among among Japan's most respected print artists.

Two unique qualities of a Maki print are the textures achieved by working the designs in wet cement and the use of Chinese characters as design motifs. Sometimes he exaggerates an element of a word to give it a whimsical touch, then again without concern for legibility he refashions a character for beauty and composition alone. The cement on which the designs are inscribed can be worked deeply and precisely, creating prints that look very different from those embossed through other processes.