Sakura 5

Sakura 5 is part of Namiki's ongoing series devoted to flowering cherry, the recurring subject through which he engages most directly with the kacho-e tradition. The print likely presents a single cherry tree or a cluster of branches, the blossoms rendered as small concentrations of pale pink and white against a graduated ground. Achieving the soft luminosity for which Namiki is known requires the bokashi technique to be applied across the background blocks, with pigment wiped in a controlled gradient before each impression of the baren. The blossoms themselves are typically printed from finely carved small blocks that allow the cluster forms to read clearly without hard outlines. Within the artist's body of work, the Sakura series complements his forest images by isolating a single seasonal motif, and connects his contemporary practice to a long lineage of Japanese print artists who returned repeatedly to cherry blossom as a vehicle for the contemplation of transience.