“Green Apple”

"Green Apple" departs from Mibugawa's usual landscape subjects toward what reads as a still-life or orchard study. The print likely centres on a single fruit or a small grouping, treated with the same pastel restraint applied to his rural scenes: pale chartreuse and ivory on a soft neutral ground, with bokashi used to model the rounded form rather than line work. Within mokuhanga, fruit and floral subjects belong historically to kacho-e — the bird-and-flower category — and Mibugawa's handling here would extend that tradition into a quieter, more contemporary key. Technically, such a print can be carried by very few blocks: a tonal block for the fruit body, a darker accent block for shadow and stem, and the white of the washi reading as highlight. As an Unsōdō-affiliated artist who carves and prints his own editions, Mibugawa moves between landscape, cityscape, and these occasional smaller studies, the latter often produced in modest editions sold through the Kyoto publisher's channels.