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Art in the Library

Ancient Magic

Jed Henry, Ancient Magic, 2019, Archival pigment on handmade Japanese paper, 17 x 12 in.

An illustration of the Studio Ghibli characters Howl and Sophie depicting the moment in their story where Howl is dying and Sophie must break his curse by giving him back his heart. Howl is laying on the ground, part human and part crow, while Sophie places his heart on his chest as magical fire erupts.

Jed Henry grew up in rural Indiana and “fell in love with video games”, most of which had their origins in Japan. “I escaped into the world of heroes, competition, and fun that Japanese gaming offered. Later, I served an LDS mission in the Tokyo area, where I fell in love with Japan and the Japanese people. Then, while a student at Brigham Young University, I had the opportunity to study Japan’s culture and history alongside my major field of animation. I began to wonder if there was a way to bring all the places, people, and characters I loved into one medium.

For hundreds of years, Japanese woodblock printmakers worked in a thriving popular art scene. Their prints depicted heroes, villains and monsters, spanning every genre from satire, to romance, to horror. This heritage is especially evident in Japan’s video game industry, a new chapter in an ancient, enduring culture. To celebrate Japan’s contribution to video games, Jed took his favorite game characters and returned them to the ukiyo-e woodblock-print style. He lives in Provo, Utah with his family.