Hanga
White cliff by Fumio Fujita — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

White cliff

by Fumio Fujita

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

Description

White cliff likely depicts a pale rock face or coastal escarpment rendered in Fujita's characteristic mode of geometric reduction, where natural forms are pared back to flat planes of color and clean contour. Working in the sosaku-hanga tradition, Fujita would have carved and printed this himself on washi, building the image through successive impressions taken with a baren rather than a press. The chromatic restraint suggested by the title — a dominant field of near-white set against deeper tonal blocks — is consistent with his preference for reduced palettes that let the grain of the woodblock and the texture of the paper carry visual weight. Subtle bokashi gradations along edges of the cliff face would soften the otherwise hard geometry, a technique Fujita used throughout his forest series to suggest atmosphere without illusionistic depth. The work belongs to the broader strand of his practice that turns away from the figurative crowdedness of earlier ukiyo-e toward a quieter, near-abstract reading of the Japanese landscape, aligned with mid-twentieth-century mokuhanga's exchange with Western modernism.

More Prints by Fumio Fujita

Frequently Asked Questions

White cliff was created by Fumio Fujita (藤田不美夫).