Maki Haku

Maki Haku (巻白, 1924–2000) is the artistic name of Maejima Tadaaki, who was born in Ibaraki Prefecture.[1] He was a sōsaku-hanga artist in 20th Century Japan.[2] During World War II, Maejima Tadaaki was trained as a kamikaze pilot in the Japanese air force, but the war ended before he was assigned a mission.[3] Haku had no formal art training, but studied for two years with the sōsaku-hanga artist Onchi Kōshirō (1891–1955).[4]

Poem 71-91 by Maki Haku, 1971, woodblock print, ink and color on paper with embossing

Two unique qualities of Maki Haku prints are the textures achieved by working the designs in wet cement and the use of Kanji (Chinese characters) as design motifs.[5] In 1962, he started adding texture to his prints. At first, he added texture to the entire sheet after it was printed. In 1965, he began embossing designs into unprinted paper by using a press to transfer a design created in cement on a carved plywood board, and then adding color with stencils.[6][7] He distorted and rearranged the strokes of Chinese characters to produce striking and serene images. For example, Poem 71-91 is a highly stylized representation of the kanji 無, which is pronounced mu and means nothingness, an important concept in some forms of Buddhism.

Haku participated in the Tokyo International Print Biennale in 1957 and 1960. The book Festive Wine: Ancient Japanese Poems from the Kinkafu is a translation of 21 ancient poems called Kinkafu or Music for Wagon Songs. The translation is accompanied by Maki Haku's prints that were made in 1968–69.

The Art Institute of Chicago, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are among the public collections holding prints by Maki Haku.[8][9]

Further reading
  • Brannen, Noah, Elliott, William and Maki, Haku. Festive Wine: Ancient Japanese Poems from the Kinkafu. New York: Walker/Weatherhill, 1969
  • Michener, James A., The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation, Tuttle Publishing, Rutland, Vermont, 1968, pp. 51-54 ISBN 0804804052
  • Petit, Gaston, 44 Modern Japanese Print Artists, Vol 1, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1972, pp. 210-219
  • Tretiak, Daniel, The Life and Works of Haku Maki, Outskirts Press, Parker, Colorado, 2007 ISBN 9781432705756

Footnotes
  1. Michener, James (2012-07-09). Modern Japanese Print - Michener: An Appreciation. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4629-0405-1.
  2. Michener, James A., The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation, Tuttle Publishing, Rutland, Vermont, 1968, p. 54
  3. Salel, Stephen, "Maki Haku & the Poetry of Form" in Honolulu Museum of Art, June•July•Aug 2017, p. 9
  4. Michener, James A., The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation, Tuttle Publishing, Rutland, Vermont, 1968, p. 54
  5. Blackemore, Frances, Who's Who in Modern Japanese Prints, John Weatherhill Inc., New York, 1975, ISBN 0834801019, p. 99
  6. Tretiak, Daniel, The Life and Works of Haku Maki, Outskirts Press, Parker, Colorado, 2007, ISBN 9781432705756, p. 28
  7. Petit, Gaston, 44 Modern Japanese Print Artists, Vol 1, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1972, p. 211
  8. Tretiak, Daniel, The Life and Works of Haku Maki, Outskirts Press, Parker, Colorado, 2007, ISBN 9781432705756, p. 20
  9. "Exchange|Search: artist:"Maki Haku"". exchange.umma.umich.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
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