Edutainment > Yamataka Noboru - born 1926

Yamataka Noboru I

Japanese Prints
Spring Snow
copyright Yamataka Noboru

Moku hanga artist Yamataka Noboru has not come to our attention until recently. That is probably because we did not receive any consignments of works by this artist - until recently. Now we know what we nearly missed. But it is never too late. For collectors of modern Japanese prints Yamataka Noboru is a MUST HAVE in our view.

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From Literature to Moku Hanga

Yamataka Noboru was born in Tokyo in 1926. He studied literature and graduated from literature department of Tokyo University in 1945.

Mr. Yamataka is a self-taught artist. He worked as an editor for a Japanese book publöishing company for 37 years and had nearly missed his real vocation: creating woodblock prints. The artist was already 50 years old when he could finally hold his first solo exhibition.

Views of Villages, Houses and Towns

Yamataka Noboru II

About Hanga
Autumn Colors
copyright Yamataka Noboru

Yamataka Noboru has specialized in views of villages, rural Japanese houses and town scenes. The way in which he uses the woodblock technique in some of his prints is quite peculiar. It is some kind of "pointillism", once invented by French painter Georges Seurat who separated an image into many small dots of different colors.

But Yamataka Noboru's woodblock technique is not an adoption of the "dot theory" of Georges Seurat. But there are similarities. When you look at one of his woodblock images from a certain distance you get an impressive overall picture of a landscape or a farmhouse. And when you look at the print from a short distance, you see the structure of single dots and strokes carved into the wooden block. Basically the artist imitates the way our human eyes work.

Mainly in later and in smaller-sized works Yamataka Noboru uses a different style. The images are now characterized by the use of larger, flat areas - much in the tradition of 19th century ukiyo-e. To achieve for the viewer a more three-dimensional feeling, Yamataka uses gradation.

Exhibitions of Yamataka Noboru

Yamataka Noboru III

From Ukiyo-e to Moku Hanga
Late Fall in Kai
copyright Yamataka Noboru

• Annual solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Japan.

Yamataka Noboru has exhibited at the annual CWAJ print shows since 1973.

Collections

• Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Japan.
• Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
• Bunkyo Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
• Ota Ward Folk Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
• Shinjuku Historical Museum, Tokyo, Japan.

Dieter Wanczura
(July 2009)

More Woodblock Prints by Yamataka Noboru

Yamataka Noboru IV

Georges Seurat - Pointillism
Season of Fallen Leaves
copyright Yamataka Noboru

Yamataka Noboru V

Contemporary Japanese Printmakers
Season of Fallen Leaves - Detail
copyright Yamataka Noboru

Yamataka Noboru VI

Contemporary Japanese Prints
Lakeside in Early Spring
copyright Yamataka Noboru

Yamataka Noboru VII

Prints by Clifton Karhu
Riverside in Akashi
copyright Yamataka Noboru

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