‘Flight of Fantasy’ is our most ambitious wood print yet. I’m astounded by the intricate details, along with the many gradient atmospheric effects. The kanji in the top cartouche reads: むげんの果 which translates as “Unceasing Fruition” or “Unending Ending”. The bottom cartouche contains: 呵責乃闘志, meaning “Fighting spirit borne of a tortured conscience”. To see a video of this print’s creation, please follow this link.

This print is in the traditional koban format – 7 x 9 inches (17.5 x 23 cm).

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.