is the artistic name of Maejima Tadaaki, who was born in Ibaraki Prefecture

Ibaraki Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan, located in the Kantō region on the main island of Honshu. The capital is Mito.-History:Ibaraki Prefecture was previously known as Hitachi Province...

. Maki Haku was a sōsaku hanga

Sosaku hanga

was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods. It advocated the principles of "self-drawn" , "self-carved" and "self-printed" art, stressing the artist, motivated by a desire for self-expression, as the sole creator...

artist in 20th Century Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He had no formal art training, but was guided by the sōsaku hanga leading artist Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955) Maki Haku is represented at the Tokyo International Print Biennale in 1957 and 1960.

Maki Haku is best known for his abstract-calligraphic prints. He distorted and rearranged characters and strokes to produce striking and serene images. 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.

Further reading

Brannen, Noah, Elliott, William and Maki, Haku. Festive Wine: Ancient Japanese Poems from the Kinkafu. New York: Walker/Weatherhill, 1969.

External links

• Maki Haku's works at Los Angeles County Museum of Art