Hanga
Mankind by Fujimori Shizuo — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

Mankind

by Fujimori Shizuo

Medium:
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Image courtesy of
Saru Gallery

Description

A general philosophical title of this kind suggests a figural composition of broad humanist intent—possibly a single figure or small group treated symbolically rather than as portrait or genre subject. Fujimori's contribution to sosaku-hanga from the early Tsukuhae journal years onward had argued that the woodblock print belonged among the serious expressive media on equal terms with oil painting and sculpture; an ambitious abstract title like Mankind reflects that claim directly. The composition likely uses heavy outline and reduced color, in keeping with self-carved practice, with figures rendered through volumetric simplification rather than the linear elegance of traditional bijin-ga. The carving preserves visible tool marks and the slight roughness that hand-pulled impression produces on washi, qualities the movement valued as evidence of authorship. The print represents the philosophical strand within Fujimori's wider output, where landscape and architectural prints are complemented by figure work whose titles—Mankind, This mortal body—signal an ambition beyond decorative or topographical concern.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Mankind was created by Fujimori Shizuo (藤森静雄).