Abstract

This second Abstract print reflects Yamaguchi's tendency to work in groups around a single nonobjective problem — adjusting proportion, color temperature, or the ratio of figure to ground across closely related sheets. Where one Abstract might hold a dense dark mass against a lighter field, a companion print could invert the relationship or shift the palette toward warmer or cooler registers, with the underlying shape vocabulary held roughly constant. Yamaguchi was careful to preserve the physical evidence of mokuhanga in these works: registration marks of multiple blocks, slight color overlaps, and the absorbent character of washi all remain part of the image. Together with Onchi Kōshirō, Hiratsuka Un'ichi, and other senior sosaku-hanga figures, he helped redefine what a Japanese woodblock print could be in the postwar period — not a reproduction of an existing design but an original abstract work whose authority rests on the artist's complete control of the medium.