Schubert’s Krähe. Winterreise No. 15 (Schubert’s Ravens. Winter’s Journey no. 15)

Best known for his kimono and obi patterns, the 20th-century Japanese artist Kojima Tokujiro was also active as a printmaker. The print shown here, an example of katazome, or stencil print, belongs to a series of 12 prints inspired by Franz Schubert’s (1797–1828) Winter Journey. The composition is a song cycle for voice and piano set to poems by the German poet Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827). Kojima depicts Schubert’s score surrounded by lively patterns and visual components executed in the “Mingei style,” a term coined by the early 20th-century Japanese philosopher Sōetsu Yanagi (1889–1961) to refer to “art of the people.” An example of folk art, the image’s graphic manner stands in distinct contrast to the better-known Ukiyo-e style of Japanese printmaking.