Picking Edible Wild Plants - Sansaitori

Sansaitori, the Japanese practice of gathering edible wild plants from mountain and forest landscapes, provides the subject for this oban mokuhanga print. Joshua Rome references an activity deeply embedded in rural Japanese food culture, where seasonal foraging for ferns, bamboo shoots, wild herbs, and mountain vegetables connects communities to the cycles of the natural world. The water-based woodblock technique builds layered fields of green and earth tones on washi paper, evoking the undergrowth and forest floor where wild plants grow. Rome's semi-abstract treatment suggests the density of a foraging landscape rather than illustrating specific plant species, creating a visual environment the viewer can enter imaginatively. As an American artist practicing mokuhanga in Japan, Rome brings both fascination and respect to cultural traditions like sansaitori that exist at the intersection of sustenance and seasonal ritual.