MASAAKI TANAKA - Japanese Festival Originals

Japan even today has nurtured the ancient custom of community festivals. Some festivals invite the Gods to move among the people. Some are "Festivals of Thanks" for a good harvest or the depiction of historical events or folk tales. The main thing is the importance of the coming together of whole communities.

In the ingeniously simple but daring designs Tanaka has produced in his remarkable silk-screens do much more than just record a historical moment. They burst with color, many with spectacular fireworks, and dynamic vitality.

Flaming red dragons and the golden costumes of lion dancers are but a few of the colorful visual images of these great Japanese annual events in cities and villages throughout the country. You do not have to be Japanese to appreciate Tanaka's art and the culture that created it. Every single serigraph has a magic all its own that quickly becomes an emotion through the eyes of the beholder. Any one of these "Matsuri" serigraphs will be an exciting and valuable asset to any collection.

One art critic said, regarding Tanaka's work, "You are not reproducing the past, rather, you are creatng a new past."