Autumn Stream (Aki no mizu), Shôwa period, 1963

Autumn Stream (Aki no mizu), dated 1963, takes its title from the Japanese for autumn water — a subject with deep resonance in classical poetry and painting. Uchima abstracts the stream into horizontal bands and planar passages of color, likely employing the muted ochres, blue-grays, and deep russets associated with the season. The flowing quality of water is rendered not through illusionistic depth but through the relationship between color planes and the directional grain of the woodblock itself. Executed during the height of Uchima's mature period, the print reflects his alignment with the sosaku-hanga movement while absorbing the influence of American Abstract Expressionism, particularly the color field painters he encountered while teaching at Columbia University. Washi's absorbent surface allows ink to settle into the paper's texture, giving the image a luminosity that synthetic supports cannot replicate.