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Kawakami Sumio (1895–1972)
Japan, Showa era, ca. 1950
Woodblock print with hand coloring on imitation leather
H x W (Image): 26.3 × 38.4 cm (10 3/8 × 15 1/8 in)
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Purchase and partial gift of the Kenneth and Kiyo Hitch Collection from Kiyo Hitch with funds from the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment
S2019.3.931
Intersected by navigational lines and featuring land masses populated with different peoples and fantastical creatures, Kawakami Sumio’s printed map looks like a relic from a distant age of sea exploration. Kawakami collected antique foreign artifacts and was fascinated by encounters between Japan and foreign nations, particularly the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The map is suffused with a sense of nostalgia, and its irregular edges suggest the uncertain boundaries of cultural exchange. Kawakami grew up and worked through Japan’s tumultuous twentieth century, and this print can be seen as a personal exploration of his position in an ever-changing world order.
