The blink of an eye

The title refers to a momentary action—an instant captured in the slow, deliberate medium of woodblock printing—and points to the artist's interest in transient states. Mokuhanga, despite its labor-intensive production process involving carved blocks and hand-pulled impressions on washi, has a tradition of arresting motion and momentary expression, extending from the kabuki actor prints of Toshusai Sharaku in the late eighteenth century through the bird-and-animal studies of subsequent generations. The composition likely concentrates on the subject's face or upper body, where the suggested action—the closing and opening of an eye—is most legible. Bokashi gradations and minimal background detail would direct visual attention to this single moment. Within Fukami Gashu's documented body of work, this print, together with "Thoughts" and "Nostalgic thoughts," forms a thematic group focused on inner states and transitions—the title functioning as a meditation on time, perception, and impermanence, ideas with resonance in Japanese aesthetic and Buddhist tradition.