Edutainment > Ohno (Ono) Bakufu - 1888-1976

Ohno Bakufu I

Japanese Prints - Home
Tea House in the Snow
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Ohno Bakufu worked as a successful painter and printmaker during the first half of the twentieth century. He is mostly known for his fish prints, mainly the series 'Dai Nihon Gyorui Gashu'. But he has more to offer than images of fish. He made some fine landscape and nature prints.

The artist is also frequently found with the name writing of Ono Bakufu.

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Outside the Main Art Movements

Print artists who were active during the first half of the twentieth century can usually be attributed to one of the two art movements of the period - the shin hanga or the sosaku hanga "camp" of woodblock printmakers.

Not so with Ohno Bakufu. His style does not fit into any of these two groups. Ohno's art works look more like "lost in time and space". Ohno Bakufu did not carve and print himself as the Western-oriented sosaku hanga artists did.

Published by Kyoto Hanga-in

Ohno Bakufu II

Shin Hanga
Striped Fish
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Ohno Bakufu was primarily a painter. I assume that most of his print designs were taken from paintings of the artist. Skillful carvers and printers turned them into woodblock prints. And the process of printmaking was at best loosely supervised by Ohno Bakufu. But that is my personal guess.

Publisher was Kyoto Hanga-in. In general, the Kyoto publishers at that time did not practice the export-oriented style of the Tokyo publishers with the figurehead publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. The Kyoto publishers practiced a more conservative style, a bit retrograde with a touch of modernism.

Woodblock Prints by Ohno Bakufu

Ross Walker lists roughly 70 different designs by Ohno Bakufu on his web site pages. Below are a few images taken from the artelino archive of sold Japanese Prints.

Landscape Prints

Ohno Bakufu III

Sosaku Hanga
Shoren-In Garden, Autumn
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Ohno Bakufu IV

Sosaku Hanga Artists
Working in Rice Paddy
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Night Scenes

Ohno Bakufu V

Japanese Painting
Water Mill at Night
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Ohno Bakufu VI

Japanese Prints
Autumn Moon
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Great Japanese Fish Picture Collection

Ohno Bakufu is best known for a series of 72 fish prints, "Dai-nippon Gyorui Gashu" (Pictures of Fish in Japan). They were published in 5 parts between 1937 and 1942/44. Bakufu Ohno made most of these designs from sketches of living fish.

Ohno Bakufu IVI

Japanese Prints - for Beginners
Flying Fish
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Ohno Bakufu VIII

Japanese Woodblock Printing
Scorpion Fish - Pictures of Fish in Japan Vol.3
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Nature Prints

Ohno Bakufu IX

Koson Ohara - Biography
Collection of Japanese Flowers and Birds
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Ohno Bakufu X

Kacho-e by Koson Ohara
Crane and Pine
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Dieter Wanczura
(July 2009)

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