Maggs Bros.

Twelve months of the years, presented graphically with seasonal motifs.

It was very popular for katazome (stencil dye) artists to produce annual calendars, and indeed calendars are often exchanged as gifts at the beginning of the New Year in Japan. Serizawa Keisuke, whom Kojima apprenticed under, produced many such collectable calendars that have been reprinted several times. By comparison, Kojima produced relatively little books and works on paper, and the present set is a rare example.

This series has a very Japanese feel, as opposed to some of his other printed works which draw influence from Western design and culture. In this series we see seasonal and auspicious motifs that are highly familiar in Japan – bamboo, irises and plum blossom, among others. Kojima has opted for a monochromatic palette, using only black and a subtle grey for definition. It is especially pleasing to have the viewer’s eye drawn to the intricate details of the stencils, which he would have cut painstakingly by hand.