Haku Maki (1924-2000) "Poem 69-25" Color Intaglio Etching, No. 8 of and edition of 25. Signed, numbered and titled in pencil by the artist. Measures 26"x20 1/2"x1". Weight 8 pds. Haku Maki (1924-2000) was a Japanese artist of the second half of the 20th century. He first made his name and his living by producing prints featuring Chinese characters (kanji). His life as an artist dates from the mid-1950s, when the earliest known Maki prints began appearing. Haku Maki was born in Aso-machi in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1924, as Maejima Tadaaki. In the late 1950s, he selected the name Haku Maki to show his humility and self-styled confusion. If translated literally, "Maki" is Roll, "Haku" is White. He graduated at Ibaraki Teachers' College and became vice-principal of an elementary school there. In 1945 he was in a special squadron of kamikaze pilots and his life was to be ended. However, with the surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945 his life was spared, and he became a teacher at a high school. He studied printmaking at the Modern Print Research Society with Koshiro Onchi andi, in 1950 he changed his name to Haku Maki. His work has a few characteristic design elements for which he became famous - deep embossing and the use of distorted Chinese characters. Maki developed his own process of relief printmaking, applying mixed media printing techniques. The artist first carved a conventional woodblock. Then he put cement around the carved areas. When the cement had dried out, Haku Maki carved and chiseled the cement into the shape he wanted to have. Then a wet, double-layered paper was used for the printing. Thus prints made in this technique show strong embossing. Haku Maki's works look nearly three-dimensional.

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