A woman writes of her problem. It is likely to remain one. She has a collection of what she calls bark pictures, produced in Japan after World War II. She describes them as landscapes composed of mountains made of tree bark, trees made of moss, and painted water and skies. She doubts if they were considered as art in Japan but says they are done with great skill and are very attractive. She wants to find people who are knowledgeable about Japanese "kitsch" or popular culture who would know about such exports to the United States in the '50s and '60s. She has been unsuccessful in her research in the U.S.

Unless some reader can help, she won't do any better here. A great number of things that were exported in those days were not Japanese. They were instead made to foreign specifications, which in many cases explains the nontraditional nature of some of those products, and was often a factor behind the mistaken reputation the Japanese endured in those days for exporting products of poor quality and bad taste. When Japan once again became secure enough to control its exports, and to no longer require such orders for survival -- and labor was no longer cheap -- such products disappeared from the market and were promptly forgotten. It is quite possible these pictures fell within this group, that they were made from some non-Japanese design. There is nothing traditional about what she describes except perhaps as a souvenir item from some famous woodworking or mountain area, rather like shell night-lights at beach resorts and nicely painted scenic ash trays.

The closest thing would be the framed, usually in black lacquer (plastic), three-dimensional pictures of Chinese temple and mountain scenes. I think the mountains are made of cork, not wood, but the trees appear to be made of moss. They are exquisitely made and attractive, but they are not Japanese. Although they are sold in many souvenir-type shops in Japan, they are mostly made in China.