Pond

Pond presents a quiet body of still water, a subject category that overlaps with the meisho-e tradition of place-pictures while leaning toward the more intimate, observational mode favored by later Meiji and Taishō printmakers. A mokuhanga of this kind typically relies on bokashi gradation — pigment graded across the block by the surimono — to render reflections and the soft tonal shift between near and far water. The print likely uses a restrained palette and quiet horizontal composition rather than the dramatic diagonals of earlier Edo-period landscape masters such as Hokusai or Hiroshige. Within Fukami Gashu's small known body of work, which includes a sheet referencing the manner of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Pond suggests engagement with a more contemplative, atmospheric strain of Japanese printmaking. The repeated 'saru' element in the slugs across this group indicates the prints belong together as a sequence, in which Pond functions as a pure landscape note alongside the figural and animal studies.