Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)

This untitled woodblock print belongs to Inuzuka Taisui's body of shin-hanga nature studies. The production of kacho-e prints in the 1920s and 1930s involved a carefully coordinated workflow between artist, carver, and printer. The artist's hanshita-e (preparatory drawing) had to specify every detail of the final composition, including the number of color blocks required and the sequence in which they would be printed. For botanical subjects, this meant decisions about how to render the translucency of petals, the texture of leaves, and the tonal gradations that give three-dimensional form to flat printed surfaces. Taisui's prints reflect this planning in their consistent technical quality, even as the specific subject of this undocumented work remains unknown.