Division - work No. 49

Division — Work No. 49 is part of Hamanishi's most extensive and recognized series, the Division prints, in which the picture plane is partitioned into horizontal bands or compartments of varying tonality. Each division typically holds a single botanical or natural element — a leaf, seed, stalk, feather — set against the deep, light-absorbing black for which the artist's mezzotints are known. The technique demands that the copper plate be uniformly textured with a rocker to hold ink across the entire surface; burnishing tools then smooth selected areas, with degree of pressure controlling tonal value. Number 49 sits well into the sequence, signaling sustained engagement with a compositional structure first developed in earlier prints. The series's geometry — bands of equal or graduated height stacked vertically — provides a frame within which Hamanishi tests permutations of subject, scale, and tonal balance. The work's velvety blacks are inseparable from the mezzotint's slow, physical preparation of the plate.