Chiura Obata Boxed Notecards

The woodblock prints reproduced in this notecard set are from the World Landscape Series, cut in 1928–1930 by Chiura Obata. The series’ title is a little misleading; most of the prints are scenes of the Yosemite Valley in California.

Obata (1885–1975) moved from Tokyo to San Francisco in 1902. He supported himself as an illustrator, but he loved to wander California, painting landscapes; Obata produced more than one hundred during one summer-long sojourn in the mountains.

Obata exhibited the print series at a national exhibition in Tokyo (where he had returned upon his father’s death); Lake Basin in High Sierra, reproduced here, won first prize.

In 1932, Obata joined the art department at the University of California, Berkeley. He exhibited widely in solo shows. Interned during World War II, he organized an art school with hundreds of students. After the war, Obata was reinstated at Berkeley, retiring as professor emeritus in 1955. He continued to exhibit and lecture almost until his death.