Cover for Little Fan by Yosano Akiko 1904

Fujishima Takeji created this cover for Yosano Akiko’s *Little Fan* with what looks like woodblock printmaking. It's so interesting to see these traditional techniques creating such modern looking art. The colors here are so great; that beige skin tone against a burst of red in the fan, and a sort of aubergine or purple outline defining the forms and the beautiful, graphic eye. It is such a direct and simple image, but that directness is part of what makes it so powerful. Look at the mark-making, how the lines aren't perfect, how there are slight mis-registrations that allow the ground color to peek through. In a way, this is also painting, the process laid bare, so you can see all the decisions and actions that went into making it, and the beauty of that process. It reminds me a bit of the work of Emil Nolde, especially in the expressive use of color and the raw quality of the printmaking. It shows that, even across cultures, artists share similar concerns and ways of seeing.