Kamisaka Sekka — White Heron (Momoyogusa) | Japanese Woodblock Print

A white heron with a long grey bill stands among pale green reeds at the water’s edge, its body and folded wing partly covered by a large black lattice shape whose diamond facets show a dull olive-brown ground through the crossed black bands. The upper background is pale grey, the water below a solid deep blue. Only the heron’s head, neck and the curve of its back are left uncovered by the black form.

Kamisaka Sekka (1866–1942) was the last great designer of the Rinpa tradition and the artist who carried it into modern design. Trained in Kyoto and sent by the government to the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, he absorbed Art Nouveau and returned to reshape Rinpa’s flat colour, empty ground and gold into something startlingly graphic. His woodblock album Momoyogusa — Flowers of a Hundred Worlds (1909–1910) is his masterpiece: waves, pines, cranes and figures reduced to a few shapes on cream paper. His prints are held by the Rijksmuseum, the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.