Sushi-Maru II Hira Suzuki
Print
1995 (made)
1995 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Yosuke Imai began making prints in 1987 and specialises in the techniques of etching and aquatint. The technique of Chine collé in which a very fine paper bearing the printed image is pasted to a stronger one is used here, with the Japanese Ganpi paper (made from a tree of that name) adhered to Arches, a stronger, French paper. Imai caught the fish portrayed here at the coast of his hometown and tells us it was 88cm long. He ate it with his family after making a number of drawings. The images around the fish may derive from old Japanese fishing manuals.
Imai's best known works are the Sushi-Maru series which focuses on fish caught in Japanese seas. He often depicts the fish used in sushi and the timing of his work is governed by the fishing seasons. He likes to think of making an etching as a process akin to cooking, in which adjustments of heat and seasoning can be compared to the judgement of immersion times of the plate in acid, the depth of line cut and the application of ink.
Imai's best known works are the Sushi-Maru series which focuses on fish caught in Japanese seas. He often depicts the fish used in sushi and the timing of his work is governed by the fishing seasons. He likes to think of making an etching as a process akin to cooking, in which adjustments of heat and seasoning can be compared to the judgement of immersion times of the plate in acid, the depth of line cut and the application of ink.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Sushi-Maru II Hira Suzuki (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Etching and and aquatint on chine collé on dyed ganpi paper |
| Brief description | Print, etching on chine collé, of a large fish surrounded with smaller images and texts, Yosuki Imai, Japan, 1995 |
| Physical description | Image of a sea-bass, surrounded (above and below) with panels individually numbered from 1 to 6, three above and three below The panels at the top look as if they may be derived from a zoological text book.On the left, in text '1', can be discerned lettering reading "cotton cordell Red - Fin" underscored and below this the words "sinking type". This may refer to a fishing lure as there are also two fish hooks suspended from a schematic fish. In the centre, at '2', at the top are what look like a magnified view of part of a flea and drawings of individual parts. To the right, at '3', could be a diagrammatic representation of an astronomical constellation, a tadpole and a section of a plant. In the 3 panels below there is indecipherable text, which could be some kind of mirror writing. Running across the top margin of the plate is a pattern of stylised waves as found in Japanese prints. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Production type | Limited edition |
| Copy number | 2/25 |
| Marks and inscriptions | Inscribed in pencil in the artist's hand below the image: to the left with the edition no. 2/25 and the title Sushi-Maru II "Hira-Suzuki"; and to the right signed Yosuke [spelled out in separate letters] Imai [in script] and with the date 1995.
There are further inscriptions, some indecipherable, as part of the image (The title is not totally literally translateable: "sushi" is the Japanese word for the bite-size raw fish on rice, (now common parlance in Britain) and Maru is a suffix used on Japanese ships rather like our "SS"[Steamship]. So overall the title would probably be something like SS Sea Food Snack II "Sea Bass".)
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| Credit line | Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund |
| Production | The image depicts a large fish, a sea-bass, surrounded with panels of illustration and text relating to fishing. Attribution note: A print of this size on chine collé on dyed ganpi is very difficult to achieve successfully |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Yosuke Imai began making prints in 1987 and specialises in the techniques of etching and aquatint. The technique of Chine collé in which a very fine paper bearing the printed image is pasted to a stronger one is used here, with the Japanese Ganpi paper (made from a tree of that name) adhered to Arches, a stronger, French paper. Imai caught the fish portrayed here at the coast of his hometown and tells us it was 88cm long. He ate it with his family after making a number of drawings. The images around the fish may derive from old Japanese fishing manuals. Imai's best known works are the Sushi-Maru series which focuses on fish caught in Japanese seas. He often depicts the fish used in sushi and the timing of his work is governed by the fishing seasons. He likes to think of making an etching as a process akin to cooking, in which adjustments of heat and seasoning can be compared to the judgement of immersion times of the plate in acid, the depth of line cut and the application of ink. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.1053-2003 |
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| Record created | July 12, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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