Dragon in the Clouds (雲上の龍)

Designer: Totoya Hokkei | Carver: David Bull | Printer: Rei

Paper size: 20cm by 19cm | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [M] ?

Price: $ 75.00£ 60.75€ 69.00 [Currently reprinting]

Description: This is a spring surimono originally created in 1832, which - as one would assume from the image - was a 'dragon' year. It was designed by Totoya Hokkei, one of Hokusai's followers, who is said to have left designs for more than 1000 such surimono.

There are dragons, and there are dragons ... research books tell me that although some classical Chinese dragons had five toes on each ‘hand’, your common-garden types only had three. Hokkei has chosen to give us an example of the latter - perhaps the kind of dragon you would meet on your way home from an evening out with the boys ...

Not clearly visible in the photograph of the original above are the 'special effects' commonly used in such prints: the silver and gold (coloured) metallic pigments, the deep embossing of the calligraphy and other patterns, and the full 'body' of the thick hosho paper.

The Mokuhankan edition of this print is intended to match the original as closely as possible. A series of postings and discussions on the Conversations section of this website covers the creation of this print, from tracing the original through to printing the edition.

Note: this print is a 'bleed' design, and has no border, unlike many others in this catalogue. The print you will receive appears exactly as the scanned image you see on this page.rn