Hanga
Run by Hajime Namiki — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

Run

by Hajime Namiki

Medium:
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Image courtesy of
Hanga Ten

Description

Run departs from Namiki's typical static tree compositions to suggest movement, likely depicting a horse, deer, or human figure in motion against an open landscape. The single-word title points to the artist's pared-back approach, in which a subject is reduced to its essential silhouette and placed within a field of graduated color. Producing a sense of forward motion in mokuhanga requires careful registration of the figure block against a background built from broad bokashi passages, since any misalignment would break the illusion of speed. The print continues Namiki's practice of carving and printing his own blocks on handmade washi using water-based pigments, applied with the baren in the sosaku-hanga manner. Within the artist's wider body, works of this kind sit alongside the Tree Scenes as evidence that his contemplative aesthetic can accommodate kinetic subjects, treating the figure as one more solitary element in a quiet, expansive space.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Run was created by Hajime Namiki (並木一).