Natu-2

An earlier entry in Yoshikawa's Natu (summer) series, Natu-2 likely registers the artist's chromatic response to the season through a composition built on warm, saturated planes. The numbered Natu prints are not depictions of summer scenes but distillations of summer color and rhythm into shape — overlapping forms whose adjacency carries the mood the season evokes for the artist. Each color in a multi-block mokuhanga is laid down in its own pass: pigment mixed with rice paste applied to a carved cherry-wood block, the dampened washi positioned by kento registration, pressure applied with the baren disc. Because Yoshikawa keeps her color zones distinct rather than gradated through bokashi, edges between forms remain sharp, and compositional weight comes from the relationship between adjacent shapes. As an early Natu print, Natu-2 anchors a series that has continued for decades, accumulating into a sustained color study within her independent abstract practice based in Nagoya.