"...made by Toshi-sensei for a commission that came to him from the Nobel prize committee in the mid 1980-s. They wanted to have some special items honouring Kawabata Yasunari, who had previously been awarded the prize for literature... One day he brought something to show us – the letter that he had received from the Prize Committee commissioning the works; he was quite proud of the fact that no price had been set – this was completely up to his own discretion... Another detail I remember about this set is that it was my first experience of seeing the Yoshida zinc blocks. The figure of Komako is not carved in wood, but is done with a zinc plate (produced by a commercial company from Toshi-san’s drawing). The colours were then printed in the normal way with wood. I think for these prints it would have been shina plywood." David Bull
