Kitsuneame

Kitsuneame, literally fox rain, is the Japanese term for a sun shower — rain falling while the sun continues to shine. The phenomenon is woven into folk belief, with the proverb that foxes hold their weddings during such weather, an image associated with atmospheric ambiguity and the uncanny. Rendering kitsuneame in mokuhanga calls for a careful balance of luminosity and weather: the printmaker must convey both rain and the radiance behind it, often through bokashi gradation across multiple blocks combined with carved indications of falling rain. The water-based pigments and dampened washi typical of mokuhanga suit this paradoxical light, holding soft transitions of tone without heavy build-up. Joshua Rome, who pursued sustained study of Japanese woodblock techniques after an American art education, draws on the seasonal and meteorological vocabulary that has long structured Japanese landscape imagery. The choice of a folk term as a title reflects the vernacular sensibility that runs through much contemporary mokuhanga practice and connects the print to a rooted Japanese way of naming weather.