Mystery

Mystery as a title signals one of Kawano's more ambiguous and atmospheric compositions — a figure, object, or setting charged with an unnamed but palpable sense of the uncanny or unknown. His most abstract figurative works often carry such titles, suggesting that the image was conceived not as a depiction of a specific thing but as an evocation of a psychological or spiritual state. The woodblock medium, with its capacity for deep shadows and simplified forms, was particularly well suited to rendering the mysterious.