Keika Hasegawa (active 1892 – 1905)

In Japan, the chrysanthemum, or kiku, is not just a beautiful flower, but the symbol of the sun, perfection, long life, power and nobility. It is the official flower of Japan and the seal of the Imperial family of Japan, as well as the insignia on every Japanese passport. 

Artist Keika Hasegawa translated the graceful beauty of the flowers to the page in One Hundred Chrysanthemums, printed in 1893. Each delicately-colored woodblock print features a perfect bloom balanced atop a long single-stemmed plant. In life, cultivated through the art of ogiku (“single stem”), these plants can reach six feet tall with enormous blossoms the size of softballs.

Sugiura Kazutoshi (B.1938)

The works of Kazutoshi Sugiura and his mixed technique consist of three phases. First the artist applies the sheet of gold on the hand made paper. On top of that he sets his motif in silk screen press.  With a stretched strongly woven silk towel he presses on it an abraded texture with lithography-colors. Finally he patinates the gold ground with a misty color in purple, blue or green, whichever lets the gold shimmer like a gem.