invitee for midday dinner

The title 午餐への誘い ("invitation to a midday meal") points to an intimate domestic subject — likely a table setting, prepared dish, or figure approaching a dining scene. Contemporary Japanese woodcut artists of Iwakiri's generation frequently treat such quotidian motifs as platforms for textural and compositional exploration rather than narrative description. The near-square format of 57 × 56 cm departs from historical oban proportions and reflects the autonomous picture-plane sensibility characteristic of post-1960s sōsaku-hanga practice, in which the artist designs, cuts, and prints all blocks personally. Selection for the 68th CWAJ (College Women's Association of Japan) Print Show in 2025 places this work within the principal annual juried venue for contemporary Japanese printmaking in Tokyo, where Tamabi-trained woodcut artists have featured consistently since the program's expansion from the 1970s onward. The woodcut medium permits Iwakiri the layered registration and surface variation — controlled bokashi gradations, registered key blocks, and the textural impression of baren pressure on washi — that distinguish hand-printed woodblock from offset reproduction. The print documents her continuing mid-2020s output within the established Tokyo woodcut exhibition circuit.