The Flowering Shinano Road

Medium: Screen-print in colors on Verin d’Arches paper
[23 screens, 23 colors, 23 runs]
Year: 1999
Image: 59.7 x 47.7 cm (23.5 x 18.8 inches)
Sheet: 76 x 56.8 cm (29.9 x 22.3 inches)
Edition: 100
Artist’s Proofs: 10 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 5 PP
Printer: Okabe Tokuzo, Japan
Literature: ABE 249
Yayoi Kusama Prints 1979-2017, ABE PUBLISHING LTD, Number 249, illustrated page 147

Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil on lower edge

The Flowering Shinano Road depicts a landscape from Yayoi Kusama’s childhood in the Shinano region of Japan, reflecting her signature themes of infinity, self-obliteration, and a deep connection to nature. The title refers to a road in the Shinano region, which is near Kusama’s hometown of Matsumoto, an area known for its natural beauty and vast fields. The print is characterized by dense, intricate patterns, likely incorporating her signature polka dots or “infinity nets”. These elements would cover the landscape, creating a sense of overwhelming, proliferating growth. Typical of Kusama’s work, the print would employ a striking and possibly psychedelic color palette to evoke a sense of boundlessness and energy. Color plays a crucial role here. Unlike Kusama’s more iconic, high-contrast yellow-and-black works, this palette is restrained and atmospheric. The pinks soften the composition, introducing a biological, almost floral warmth, while the greens suggest growth and regeneration. The grey-blue undertones act as a stabilizing matrix, anchoring the surface and preventing the image from tipping into pure ornament. The result is a tension between calm and compulsion: the colors soothe, the repetition unsettles.

The print is a deeply personal piece that ties into Kusama’s life story and artistic philosophy. Kusama grew up in a family that owned a plant nursery and spent her early years surrounded by boundless fields of flowers. She began experiencing vivid hallucinations as a child, which often involved her surroundings becoming engulfed by dots or patterns. This print likely reimagines that childhood landscape through the lens of her unique perception. The repetitive patterns are a key part of Kusama’s concept of “self-obliteration,” where an individual’s self dissolves into the endless rhythm of patterns and the vastness of the universe. By covering the “Shinano Road” in dots/patterns, she merges her internal world with the external environment. The work reflects Kusama’s lifelong fascination with nature (including flowers and pumpkins) as a source of both comfort and anxiety. The “flowering” aspect suggests themes of life, growth, and the cycle of existence.

This print belongs to the mature phase of Yayoi Kusama’s graphic work, when the Infinity Net, her most obsessive and intellectually rigorous motif, has fully detached itself from any literal reference and become a self-sustaining visual language. At first glance, the composition appears decorative, almost gentle. Pastel tones, soft pinks, pale greens, silvery greys, float across the surface in an all-over structure. Yet this apparent lightness is deceptive. Kusama builds the image through countless small, repeated marks, applied with disciplined regularity. Each dot, each cell-like unit, participates in a larger pulsation. The eye never settles; it circulates, drifts, and ultimately dissolves into the field. There is no hierarchy, no center, no figure-ground distinction, only continuity.

 

 

 

Auction Results

Mainichi Auction: 13 December 2025
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,300,000
JPY 1,495,000 / USD 9,595

YAYOI KUSAMA
The Flowering Shinano Road (ABE 249), 1999
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100

Mainichi Auction: 1 August 2025
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,300,000
JPY 1,437,500 / USD 9,710

YAYOI KUSAMA
The Flowering Shinano Road, 1999
Screenprint
Signed
From the edition of 100

Est-Ouest Auctions Tokyo: 18 May 2024
Estimated: JPY 1,800,000 – 2,800,000
JPY 2,530,000 / USD 16,255

YAYOI KUSAMA
THE FLOWERING SHINANO ROAD, 1999
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and edition in the margin

SBI Art Auction: 31 October 2020
Estimated: JPY 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
JPY 1,322,500 / USD 12,635

YAYOI KUSAMA
The Flowering Shinano Road (Kusama 249), 1999
Screenprint
Signed, titled, dated and numbered
From the edition of 100

Mallet Japan: 18 June 2020
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,200,000
JPY 1,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 1,398,500 / USD 13,090

YAYOI KUSAMA
The Flowering Shinano Road, 1999
Screenprint in colors on Arches
Signed
Edition: 29/100 plus 10 artist’s proofs

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 5 June 2020
Estimated: HKD 40,000 – 60,000
HKD 118,750 / USD 15,310

YAYOI KUSAMA (B. 1929)
The Flowering Shinano Road, 1999
Screenprint
Signed and dated ‘yayoi Kusama 1999′
Numbered ‘30/100′
Titled in Japanese

Mainichi Auction: 25 January 2020
Estimated: JPY 1,300,000 – 1,800,000
JPY 1,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 1,398,000 / USD 12,790

YAYOI KUSAMA
The Flowering Shinano Road, 1999
Screenprint
Signed
Edition: 40/100

Mallet Japan: 16 May 2019
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,200,000
JPY 1,200,000 (Hammer)
JPY 1,398,500 / USD 12,195

YAYOI KUSAMA
The flowering Shinano Road, 1999
Screenprint in colors
Signed
Edition: 58/100 plus 10 artist’s proofs

Sotheby’s London: 7 June 2017
Estimated: GBP 3,500 – 4,500
GBP 12,500 / USD 16,175

YAYOI KUSAMA
The Flowering Shinano Road, 1999
Screen-print in colors on Arches paper
Signed, titled in Japanese, dated and numbered 64/100 in pencil