Sunrise

Sunrise is a study in the graduated colour of early Kyoto morning, almost certainly built around a long horizontal [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) sweep from deep indigo through rose to a pale gold horizon. The subject may be a distant ridge of the eastern hills (Higashiyama), a stretch of river, or a silhouetted rooftop line — Stewart's exterior compositions tend to subordinate descriptive detail to the larger event of changing light. In mokuhanga, sunrise effects depend on careful registration of multiple blocks, each carrying a single bokashi pass wiped fresh onto the woodblock before each impression, so no two prints in an edition share an identical sky. Working from Kyoto since 1986, Stewart has absorbed the sōsaku-hanga ethos of the artist personally drawing, carving, and printing the work, while the dawn subject itself draws on a long Japanese pictorial tradition extending from Hiroshige's daybreak views to Hasui's atmospheric [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga). The print pairs naturally with Dawn and Moonlight as part of Stewart's ongoing meditation on threshold hours.