The University Art Museum

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YASHIMA GAKUTEI (active 1815-1852)
Carp Climbing a Waterfall, ca. 1827-1828
Signature: Gakutei Artist's seal
Yashima color woodblock print with silver, gold, and brass
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Gift of Caroline and Jarred Morse

The carp in East Asian folklore is associated with valor and perservance. The image of a carp climbing a waterfall recalls the Chinese legend of a carp crossing the rapids of Lung Men (Dragon Gate) and turning into a Dragon.

Better known by later facsimile reproductions created at the end of the 19th century, this rare example of the original version is in excellent condition, and still impresses the viewer with its vivid palette of bright colors and metallic pigments. Beneath his signature in the lower left corner, the artist's "Yashima" seal, rendered in bright red pigment, serves as an integral part of the composition. Poems on the theme of a red carp (higoi) are dramatically embossed in gold on a black background.

John Carpenter, "Surimono: Privately Published Woodblock Japanese Prints", University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1995, exhibition text. (Unpublished.)