Matsumoto Hoji — Frog (Meika Gafu) | Japanese Woodblock Print

A large frog is rendered in a few broad strokes of olive-green wash, crouched frontally with round white eyes, a wide downturned mouth, and webbed feet splayed to either side. The paper ground is bare cream, with no other motif. A red seal bearing the artist’s name sits at the upper right. The reductive, calligraphic brushwork is typical of a Meiji-era album of reproduced paintings.

The frog is one sheet from Meika gafu, an Album of Pictures by Celebrated Artists printed in colour woodblock and published in Nagoya by Eirakuya Toshiro in 1814. The album collected designs by a great number of Nanga, Shijo, Maruyama, Kishi and other painters, most of them alive at the time, and the volume the frog belongs to is the third of an originally planned set of three.

Matsumoto Hoji was a Japanese painter of the mid-Edo period who died in 1800 in Osaka; his birth year is not recorded. He studied landscape painting under Yosa Buson and was a close friend of Itō Jakuchū, whose influence appears in some of his compositions. Working mainly in ink monochrome, he is best known for zenga-style paintings of toads and frogs, and also produced images of Daikokuten and of a white elephant. His work is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the British Museum.

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.