I didn't know then
that Wright was an enthusiastic collector
of ukiyo-e... Japanese woodblock prints
from the mid-19 th century
Perhaps my own interest was formed
indirectly... from their essential qualities
that I had seen in Wright's own work.
To his students at Taliesin he said:
“Hiroshige did, with a sense of space,
very much what we have been doing with it
in our architecture.”
but it is always the seals, like Wright's,
and the ones shown here
that have intrigued me.
In the 1847 Kuniyoshi to the right
there are censor seals above his signature
and a red-ink artist's seal below it.
In the 1853+ Hiroshige (II?) to the left
I show the censor's aratamè seal,
meaning “examined”,
(no erotica or political statements)
near the publisher's cartouche.
I have carved a number of artist's seals in soapstone... larger, somewhat irregular, suitable for calligraphy.
Photography requires a smaller, less conspicuous design with thinner lines...
more like the 7 to 9 mm censor seals shown here.