Lake Basin in the High Sierra from World Landscape Series

Chiura Obata

Number 32 from Chiura Obata's "World Landscape Series: America" this image Johnson Peak and Elizabeth Lake in Yosemite National Park in the High Sierra required a printing sequence of 107 individual hand printings from over 30 blocks for each of the 100 impressions, in order to replicate all the subtleties of Obata's watercolor.

The printing was supervised by Obata and the Master Printers Masuro, Tadao, and Takaaki Takazamizawa at the Takamizawa Print Works in Japan. There is a detailed description of the printing of this image in the book "Obata's Yosemite..." by Janice Driesbach and Susan Landauer, Yosemite Association, 1993 on pages 60 through 67, which includes 9 color reproductions of 9 of the 106 states.

According to Janice Driesbach, there were reportedly 400 impressions of each of the 35 compositions made, with only the finest 100 selected for the portfolios. The project employed more than 32 carvers and 40 printers and took over eighteen months to complete.

The Lyell Trail is in Yosemite National Park in California, east of Tuolumne Meadows, and runs from the valley, starting at 8,500 feet, and winds its way up Lyell Mountain canyon for about 8 miles to around 11,000 feet at the top of Donohue Pass.

This impression, in perfect condition, is an unsigned trial proof, outside the published edition and is from the personal collection of the Obata estate.