Fuye (Flute)

Fuye (Flute) is a woodblock print whose title names the traditional Japanese bamboo flute — an instrument whose breathy, slightly rough tone carries associations with outdoor spaces, traveling monks, and the melancholy of distance. The fue (or fuye in older romanization) appears throughout Japanese literature and theater as a sound that evokes longing and impermanence. Uchima translates this auditory subject into visual form, the challenge being to give shape and color to something fundamentally intangible. The abstract composition likely uses vertical forms, flowing lines, or tonal modulations that parallel the flute's sustained, wavering notes and the silences between them.