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](/glossary/washi) positioned by [kento](/glossary/kento) registration, pressure applied with the [baren](/glossary/baren) disc. Because Yoshikawa keeps her color zones distinct rather than gradated through [bokashi](/glossary/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.