Young Raven(思春期の鴉)

思春期の鴉 Shishunki no karasu
The adolescent raven




& there he sits, proudly crowing "I'm King of the world, I'm King of the world, I'm King of the world!"

I painted this after viewing some of Seiko's ukiyo-e, wood block prints. Seiko (1837-1913) was the classically (Chinese) educated daughter of a high ranking samurai, who got herself adopted by her aunt's (Okunara) clan so she could move to Edo (Tokyo) in 1865 to pursue a career in art. She was sort of the George Sand of Edo, wearing men's clothes, studying martial arts, enjoying fine food and generally making a name for herself as a fine artist and writer. At one time she had around 300 students studying art under her.

One of her images, 'A crow on a willow branch', often reproduced as ukiyo-e , led me to do this sumi-e.


Sumi-e, brushed ink on 'rice' paper, 12 by 18 inches, unmounted.