a thousand grasses

Some weeks ago, fishing around at the library of Martin Gropius Bau Museum (Berlin), I had to stop few minutes to browse a charming book: "Le Japon artistique" - Japanise floral pattern design in the Art Nuveau Era". 

Bewitched by the elegant prints i found in it, I could not resist making it part of my bookshelf.

Thanks to it, I came to know the so-called "Rinpa", one of the oldest schools of Japanise paintings, in which is developed a distinctive style, that turns the classical Japanise motifs in abstraction of composition, through a courious illusion of details (plants growing from no earth, creation of shapes through the absence of colour) and a poetic arrangement of visual elements.

Of the affiliation of the fine artists the book introduced, one excited most my curiosity and brought me to carry a little research out, he was Kamisaka Sekka (Chigusa), who was artist, designer and last figure belonging to the Rinpa school.

Of Chigusa, I found of remarkable beauty the collection of pictures of one of his woodblock printed design books: A thousand Grasses (1899). 

Here i post two substancial works:

Here, i link a rich database with a detailed sum of his works. To have a spacious view of japanise art,  i reccomand you to have a look to some other artists pages, some of who i will, hopefully, tell you more soon :)