Woodblock Print by Shodo Kawarazaki: Mountain Grape

Crimson leaves, dusty purple grapes and a few tendrils curling where they please.

Mountain Grape is a woodblock print by Shodo Kawarazaki (1889-1973), from Japan, dated 1954. It is ink on paper. Kawarazaki was among the 20th century Japanese printmakers celebrated for flower and plant subjects, rendered with flat color and crisp outlines. Large red leaves with sharp lobes and fine veins dominate the sheet, with smaller pink leaves and pale green ones among them. A cluster of deep blue-purple grapes hangs at the bottom, while sprigs of small reddish berries reach upward. A red seal sits at the upper right on a soft cream ground. It is 10.25 inches wide and 15 high.

Autumn, picked at exactly the right moment.