Senjya Fuda
(1000 Shrine Stickers)

Small and simple in general format, most senjya fuda contained only bold black Edo-moji script on a white background. But some fuda were graphically compelling in design and content, with skilled and creative use of color, shape, pattern, and calligraphy. Over time, fuda, like larger ukiyo-e woodblock prints, became collectors' items, and some were highly prized for their distinctive appearance. This interest fostered further development of artistic sophistication in fuda design. The use of senjya fuda continued through the late Meiji period and then declined, as of course did the craft of creating them.

I became intrigued with fuda during trips to Japan and began to study and work with the concept. Lacking knowledge of Japanese is an obvious major hindrance, yet the overall aesthetic of the medium can withstand and transcend some limitations. Although my fuda are not produced by the traditional woodblock technique used in the past, they are hand-rendered on high quality kozo washi using Japanese pigments and hand-mixed sumi inks. In this way I've tried to at least capture some essence of the original forms.

Below is a sampling of various fuda I've created over the last year. Click the thumbnails for enlargements. Each fuda measures 7" x 2" and is done on kozoshi 90 gm paper. For now, the originals are not for sale, but high quality archival inkjet prints using pigment-based inks on heavyweight, textured Hahnemuhle papers are available upon request.

The following passage from "One Day in Spring" wiritten in 1906 by the author Izumi Kyoka gives a vivid description of the way fuda were utilized in Japan in the past:

"Pasted over the flowers, the rounded pillars, the pedestals for the offerings, the paneled doors, and on the outer Chinese-style doors and crossbeams, wherever he looked were the small paper stickers that named the various pilgrims who had come to the temple. One read "Engraver Hori." Another read "Fishmonger Masa." There was "Yasu the Roofer," "Tetsu the Carpenter," "Goldsmith Sakan." One was from Tokyo's Asakusa District, another from Fukagawa. Others were from places far away—Suo, Mino, Omi, Kaga, Noto, Echizen, Kumamoto in Higo, Tokushima in Awa. They were like birds from distant inlets and bays, the wagtail, the cuckoo. These stickers had been left behind by unseen visitors, all of them virtuous men and women who had stayed in cheap lodgings with nothing but the cold night for a pillow, who had traveled rainy nights on rush-roofed boats and had found a home for their dreams here. Even today, the spirits of those pilgrims must come back to frolic, here where the stickers served as doorplates to their spiritual homes."