Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)

One of numerous untitled woodblock prints attributed to Inuzuka Taisui, this work belongs to the kacho-e tradition that formed the entirety of the artist's known production. Shin-hanga publishers in the 1920s and 1930s issued large numbers of botanical prints to meet collector demand, and individual works were sometimes recorded only by artist name rather than specific title. Taisui's prints from this period share a consistent format: a single botanical or avian subject, closely observed and rendered with the layered color printing that distinguishes woodblock work from other reproductive media. Each color in the finished print required a separate carved block, and the registration marks (kento) had to align precisely across every impression to prevent blurring or misalignment of the overlapping pigments.