Details

In Flying Fish, Bakufu Ohno captures a surreal moment of grace in motion—three fish suspended mid-flight as they arc above stylized waves beneath the dramatic light of twilight. Their elongated fins unfurl as wings, delicately rendered in pale ivory with touches of embossing and mica that lend dimension and transparency. The surrounding sea is an abstract field of rich blues and swirling currents, where foam and eddies take on a rhythm of their own, bordering on the cosmic.

The composition balances realism and stylization, movement and pattern. Each fish is drawn with anatomical precision, yet their flight path follows a dreamlike arc, rising out of turbulent waves rendered in undulating gradations of blue and indigo. White spray (executed in white gofun) dots the scene like stars, blurring the boundary between sea and sky. The skillful use of bokashi shading and fine linework gives the print a sense of buoyancy and wonder, as if the moment captured is both fleeting and eternal.

Connoisseur's Note

Flying Fish is part of Bakufu Ohno’s celebrated series Familiar Fishes of Japan, Volume 1 (1938), a suite of woodblock prints that blend natural science with refined design. A gifted painter of flora and fauna, Ohno approached this project with a naturalist’s eye and an artist’s imagination. The series aimed to depict common Japanese fish species with both accuracy and lyrical beauty, reflecting the nation’s deep cultural and economic connection to the sea.

This print exemplifies the influence of Art Deco and modernist design in late Shin Hanga aesthetics. The swirling patterns in the background echo both Japanese decorative traditions and contemporary Western design trends of the 1930s. The fish, while rooted in biological accuracy, appear nearly mythic in their synchronized movement and expressive forms.

This impression is particularly fine, with sharp embossing on the wings, clear detailing in the faces, and no color fading—qualities that are often diminished in later impressions or poorly stored examples. The two publisher seals (only found on first editions) and deep, unfaded pigments speak to careful preservation and the earliest printing state of the design.

Flying Fish remains one of Bakufu Ohno’s signature achievements—an image where natural science meets artistic invention, and where flight is not a metaphor, but a document of what is possible in the rich artistic tradition of woodblock prints.