Fluttering All together

Fluttering All Together belongs to a body of intaglio work in which Saito Kaoru explores motion and multiplicity through the velvet tonal range of mezzotint. The title suggests a flock — likely birds or insects — rendered in repeated forms across a darkened ground, a compositional approach that exploits mezzotint's capacity to hold deep blacks while permitting selective burnishing for highlights. Saito built his images by rocking the copper plate to a uniform burr, then scraping back light from dark, an inversion of the additive logic of relief printmaking such as nishiki-e. The result is a pictorial atmosphere in which figures emerge from shadow rather than being drawn upon a ground. This print sits alongside Saito's better-known studies of women and his Tale of Genji series, but reflects his broader interest in transient natural phenomena, a sensibility shared with the kacho-e tradition though executed in a wholly European technique. As one of two impressions cataloged under this title, it documents Saito's practice of issuing small editions and revisiting motifs across closely related plates.