flirting with death spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art

A symbolic title invoking memento mori traditions and the precarious closeness of mortality. The phrase suggests imagery of risk, temptation, or the boundary between living and dying — a thematic register that woodblock printing has long supported, from Yoshitoshi's late-period ghost prints to Edo-era depictions of the supernatural. Mokuhanga's water-based pigments and the soft absorbency of [washi](/glossary/washi) allow ambiguous, atmospheric tonalities well-suited to such subjects: dark [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) pooled around a figure, transparent overlays suggesting veiled presence, deliberate registration that lets ink density carry psychological weight. Spitzack's willingness to take on conceptually charged subject matter, rather than confining mokuhanga to pure decoration or landscape, indicates the depth of practice that earned recognition at the 2024 Echizen conference. The title's casual idiom paired with the gravity of its referent is characteristic of the contemporary American mokuhanga sensibility Spitzack contributes to.