Floating Along in the World of Japanese Prints

A Reading Rat, by Miyashita Tokio

 

I came across this bookplate recently. If you don't already know, I am obsessed with three things... Japanese prints, books and rats. This one small etching brings together all three passions in one place. Mrs rat is sitting in a rocking chair, engrossed in reading a book by the light of a solitary candle that has been placed on the table beside her. The bookplate was produced in 1980 by Miyashita Tokio (b. 1930), an artist who started out as a literature student before going on to study woodblock printing with Hiratsuka Un'ichi and metal plate printing with Komai Tetsurō and Sekino Jun'ichirō. I think it's absolutely charming.

An Album of the Twelve Zodiacal Signs by Seihō

 

The most recent addition to my collection arrived today... a lovely design of a rat by Takeuchi Seihō (1864 - 1942), published 1910-12 by Unsodo, from an album of full-page colour woodblocks entitled  An Album of the Twelve Zodiacal Signs by Seihō. The rat is shown inspecting the colourful spindle of a kite. As someone who's lived with rats for years, I have to say that Seihō has captured the inquisitive nature of the rat perfectly and his depiction of her physical form can't be faulted. The moment I saw this print, I knew I had to have it. She is the spitting image of one of my girls, Bimbim, who was a black-and-white Berkshire rat. She loved bright colours and would most certainly have loved to have this spindle to investigate.