The Homecoming

Printed from the key block — the primary outline block that defines the image's linear structure — this 1905 color woodcut impression on Japan paper reveals the skeletal framework of Lum's composition "The Homecoming." The key block (omohan) is typically the first block carved and the first printed, establishing the contours and details that subsequent color blocks will fill. Seeing the key block impression alone strips away color to expose Lum's draftsmanship in its purest form — the confidence of her line, the weight of her carved contours, the decisions about which details deserve fine articulation and which are left to color alone. This early print, made just two years into her woodblock practice, already shows facility with the carving tools and a clear sense of how line translates from drawn design to carved relief.