Iris 78

Iris 78 is a later entry in Namiki's iris series, in which the artist returns repeatedly to the same plant under varied compositional and chromatic treatments. The sheet likely presents iris stalks rising through the picture plane, the broad flag petals worked in saturated purples or blues against the cooler greens of the leaves, with the background carried as a quiet bokashi gradation rather than a literal setting. By the seventy-eighth iteration of the subject, Namiki is refining nuances of color registration and negative space rather than introducing new motifs, and the print can be read alongside its companions as part of an ongoing meditation on a single kacho-e theme. The work is hand-carved and hand-printed by the artist on handmade washi using water-based pigments and a baren, consistent with sosaku-hanga practice. Within his broader output of trees, paths, and Fuji subjects, the iris prints constitute his most sustained botanical project and are among the works most closely associated with his international reputation.