Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)

This untitled woodblock print is attributed to Inuzuka Taisui and belongs to the shin-hanga kacho-e tradition of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The printing of botanical subjects in the shin-hanga system often involved karazuri (blind embossing), a technique in which uninked blocks are pressed into dampened paper to create raised textures without adding color. This method was particularly effective for rendering the veined surfaces of flower petals and the ribbed structures of leaves, adding a tactile dimension that flat color printing alone cannot achieve. Whether this specific print employs karazuri is undetermined, but the technique was common among shin-hanga artists working with plant subjects during the period of Taisui's activity.