Constellation 73-7, Shôwa period,

The seventh print in the 1973 Constellation series continues Kitaoka's investigation of scattered form against open ground. Within the series, individual numbers likely correspond to distinct arrangements of marks or shifts in the color palette, allowing compositional comparison across variants. This print may introduce a denser clustering of elements or a darker tonal register than earlier numbers. Kitaoka's carving technique in abstract works often involved deliberate retention of wood grain texture, which reads as atmospheric interference or spatial depth. The use of [washi](/glossary/washi), with its soft absorbency, would allow printed marks to bleed slightly at their edges, softening what might otherwise be hard-edged geometric forms.