Legion of Honor

This woodblock print takes its title from the Legion of Honor, which could refer to the French decoration, the Palace of the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, or another institutional reference. Kawanishi maintained international connections through Kobe's cosmopolitan port culture, and his work circulated in Western collections and exhibitions. If the title refers to the San Francisco museum, the print may have been created for or exhibited at that institution, which holds a significant collection of Japanese prints. The ambiguity of the title reflects the international networks through which sosaku-hanga artists distributed their work during the mid-twentieth century, when American collectors and institutions actively sought out contemporary Japanese printmaking as both art and cultural diplomacy.