Kamisaka Sekka: A Thousand Butterflies (Chō senshu) 蝶千種

Kamisaka Sekka - A Thousand Butterflies (Chō senshu) 蝶千種

Some extraordinarily beautiful butterfly prints from Japanese artist/designer Kamisaka Sekka 神阪雪佳 (1866-1942) created during the Meiji period (1868–1912). The images are taken from the 1904 accordion-style, woodblock printed book entitled - A Thousand Butterflies (Chō senshu) 蝶千種. Sekka was born in Kyoto and was trained in, and became a master of the Rinpa/Rimpa school of painting, which examines natural subjects such as birds, plants and flowers in a highly stylised decorative manner. Rimpa dates from the 17th century and its hallmarks depict one-dimensional perspectives through the use of vivid colour whilst also featuring mica, gold and silver leaf, to give a shimmering quality to the finished artworks. Sekka's masterful works embody the traditions of old Japan, yet are, at the same time, very contemporary due to the influences of modern Western art. Sekka was intrigued by westerners' integration of Japanese art styles into European art by groups such as the Post-Impressionists and artists such as Whistler who adopted Japonisme into their paintings and designs. Sekka travelled to Glasgow in 1910 to investigate for himself the elements of Japanese art that were so compellingly attractive to Western eyes. Here he would have been exposed to many elements of modernism in the various art movements in European art of that period. On his return to Japan to teach at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, Sekka continued to experiment with blending Western tastes and styles into traditional Japanese art. As well as being an educator and producing woodblock printed books Sekka's practice was diverse enough to incorporate a variety of disciplines in craft such as ceramics, lacquered boxes, wall panels, and textiles, in an effort to elevate these to the same status as fine art. In 1899 Sekka produced his first notable series of prints titled "Chigusa" (A Thousand Grasses), and then in 1904, A Thousand Butterflies (Chō senshu), which deftly and lyrically captures the delight of butterflies in flight, experimenting with composition, colour and boldly reducing the butterfly silhouettes down to the barest of lines and abstracted forms, which was strongly reminiscent to me of Whistler's experiments with his butterfly monogram, again heavily influenced by Japanese art and design which I devoted a post to on this blog in 2018 (here), and which remains one of the most popular posts on this platform. Many of Sekka's butterfly designs in A Thousand Butterflies (Chō senshu) are astonishingly modern and graphic, looking as though they could have been produced today. Sekka's work is a lovely find. The only other person who's work is comparable on the subject I can think of is that of E A Seguy whose equally gorgeous butterfly prints also featured on these pages here.