On View
Not on viewObject number2023.55
Yoroi A
Artist
Fujita Fumio
(Japanese, 1933 -)
Date1964
Mediumcolor woodblock
Dimensionsmat: 28 × 22 in. (71.1 × 55.9 cm)
sheet: 24 1/4 × 16 3/4 in. (61.6 × 42.5 cm)
image: 21 1/4 in. × 15 in. (54 × 38.1 cm)
sheet: 24 1/4 × 16 3/4 in. (61.6 × 42.5 cm)
image: 21 1/4 in. × 15 in. (54 × 38.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Stan Rajnak and Margaret Edmonds
Exhibition History"Sugoi! 200 Years of Japanese Art," KIA, Galleries 2 & 5 (May 13, 2023 - September 24, 2023)Label TextBorn in Handa City, Fujita Fumio graduated from Musashino Art School (now Musashino Art University) in 1956 with a degree in painting. By 1963, Fumio moved from Tokyo to Atsugi, where he began making sōsaku hanga prints like Yoroi A (Armor A). Today, the artist favors painting and drawing due to the physically demanding process of printmaking.
A yoroi is a type of Japanese armor that consists of a kabuto (helmet), dō (cuirass), kusazuri (multipart skirt pendant), and sode (shoulder guards). This particular image shows the cuirass–the part covering both the front and back of its wearer. Popular during the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura periods (1185–1333), yoroi were generally worn by horse-riding samurai. In this work, Fumio alludes to the form of this historical garment, yet creates a unique and dynamic composition. The armor’s foundation of flattened black triangles, along with other geometric and organic shapes, punctuated by areas of orange, red, and yellow hints at abstraction–an artform rapidly spreading globally during the 1960s. [Label for “Sugoi! 200 Years of Japanese Art", 2023]
