Gazing at the water surface

A subject involving reflection—an animal or figure regarding its own image or scrutinizing something below the water—engages a long pictorial tradition in Japanese print culture, where reflective water surfaces appear across landscape and figure prints alike. Compositionally, such a print typically organizes the picture plane into two registers: the looker above and the rippled or flat water below, with the latter handled in [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations to imply transparency and depth. The carver's task is to keep the linework crisp around the figure while allowing the water blocks to bleed softly. For Fukami Gashu, a printmaker working in proximity to the Utagawa lineage of Kuniyoshi, a meditative study of this kind would represent the school's quieter register, set apart from the warrior prints and triptychs that defined Kuniyoshi's reputation.