New! Japanese Hidden Madonna – Many Sizes – Catholic Art Print

Japan suppressed Catholic missionaries and converts, sometimes violently, for centuries. Yet conversions continued. The faithful found a way of “hiding” pictures of Jesus and Mary in plain sight through subtlety. In this beautiful picture of Mary, we have a few clues of her identity: the halo, the lily, the beams coming at her from above. This is a picture of the Annunciation, without Gabriel or the Holy Spirit Dove or Mary reading a book, or being dressed in blue, all of the more traditional Catholic symbols of the Annunciation.

An even subtler clue that this is the Annunciation is the kimono that Mary is wearing. It is called a furihode (振袖), which is a symbol of purity, made of very high quality silk, and only worn by unmarried virgins. Also, the lily is known to us, but in the East, it is close to the white lotus, which in Japan has heavenly associations of purity and resurrection and shows up in Buddhist paintings. The lily was an important symbol for "Hidden Christians" in Japan ( 隠れキリシタン, kakure kirishitan).

Strictly speaking, this early or Mid-Century painting was done when it was no longer a serious crime in Japan to be Christian. Even so, being a Christian could still carry an unpatriotic stigma, and so the subtle hiding of Christian themes in paintings continued forward in Japanese culture.

The identity of the original painter is obscure. Several people are proposed as possibilities. One person on the internet who spoke the most confidently said that it was done by a Mrs Habu of Tokyo and her family. However, the style of Mrs. Hobu’s paintings, which show up in an 1960’s issue of Maryknoll magazine, is quite a bit different. Translations of the signature on the painting vary. A sale of an almost exact copy of this image does not cite the artist, but does say the original is 13x16 inches. (source, and thanks to: Evan Tyson, a Japanese scholar working at our shop.)

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a blank border around the image. Approximately 0.5" wide for 5x7, 1.3" for 8.5x11, 1.6" for 11x14, and 1.75" for 13x17 and 16x20. For the two poster sizes, 18x24 and 24x36, we use 0.5" borders. We do this because the ratio of the rectangle of the art almost never matches the rectangle of the paper, and if it did happen to match one size, it would not match the others. Most fine art printers do this because otherwise they’d have to crop the art or warp it to make it fit the paper. The border looks good. It gives the picture a faux matted appearance. There is almost always a little more border either on the left-right sides, or the top-bottom, depending on whether the ratio of the art is wider or taller than the paper.

We make Archival Quality fine art prints:

– Acid-free paper

– Archival pigments

– Cardboard backer for sizes 11x14 and less.

– Above story of the art

– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal-clear bag.

– Rated to last 200+ years without fading if kept dry and out of the direct sun.

Thanks for your interest!

+JMJ+

Sue & John

Lincoln, Nebraska

“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art.”

~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and any image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson – Classic Catholic Art.