Akisaku (Autumn Harvest)

Akisaku, meaning autumn harvest, is the subject of this oban woodblock print in which Joshua Rome addresses the seasonal theme of gathering and abundance through the mokuhanga technique. The Japanese title grounds the image in the agricultural calendar, a time when fields yield their produce and the landscape shifts from summer's green intensity to the warmer palette of early autumn. Rome's water-based pigments on washi paper produce the matte, light-absorbing surface that distinguishes mokuhanga from Western printmaking methods. The harvest theme connects this contemporary print to centuries of Japanese seasonal imagery while Rome's semi-abstract treatment, built from accumulated color layers rather than descriptive line drawing, places it firmly in the present. The interplay between traditional subject matter and modern compositional freedom defines much of Rome's output.