Drawing inspiration from famous Ukiyo-e paintings of geishas, Taccia developed this second series of fountain pen inks.
Chances are if someone mentioned a Japanese painting of a foamy wave crashing down into the sea the picture would come to your mind's eye instantly. Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave has become an ubiquitous image and might very well be the most reproduced image in the history of art.
This art form, ukiyo-e, is essentially a woodblock printing and painting technique developed in Japan's Edo period in a context of great socioeconomic prosperity. The name itself translates as "pictures of a floating world", referencing the hedonistic lifestyle of the increasingly wealthy merchants and craftsmen of this era. With subjects ranging from landscapes and folk tales to female beauties and sumo fighters, this technique revolutionised the visual identity of Japanese art by the extensive use of vivid colours, particularly Prussian blue.
