Hanga
My sister is sick by Fujimori Shizuo — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

My sister is sick

by Fujimori Shizuo

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

Description

A quiet domestic scene rendered in the self-carved, self-printed manner that defined Fujimori's sosaku-hanga practice. The title suggests an intimate sickroom subject — likely a recumbent figure under bedding with an attendant nearby, or a single figure in a moment of physical vulnerability — handled with the personal, observational tone that distinguished early sosaku-hanga from the commercial bijin-ga tradition. Rather than the polished surfaces of nishiki-e, prints of this type typically retain visible knife marks and hand-pulled baren texture, registering the artist's direct contact with the block. The choice of an autobiographical, emotionally weighted subject is characteristic of the circle around Tsukuhae, where contributors used the print as a vehicle for personal narrative rather than genre convention. Fujimori's domestic and family subjects align with the broader movement's insistence that the woodblock could carry the same expressive weight as oil painting or lithography. The work belongs to a body of intimate figural prints in which the medium itself — washi, water-based pigment, the carved line — becomes part of the emotional register.

More Prints by Fujimori Shizuo

Featured in Collections

Curated cross-cuts that include this print.

Frequently Asked Questions

My sister is sick was created by Fujimori Shizuo (藤森静雄).