Pillar II

Pillar II appears to incorporate a monkey (saru) within a vertical pillar format, fusing animal motif with architectural form in a tall composition that loosely echoes the proportions of traditional hashira-e. Working in mokuhanga, Kawachi Seiko characteristically dissolves recognizable subjects into dense, swirling engraved lines that hover between figuration and pattern — an idiom he refined after winning the Grand Prix at the 1976 Japanese Print Association Exhibition and committing fully to woodblock. The print would have been hand-pulled with a baren onto washi, with the carved grain of the block remaining legible in the finished impression and any color built up through successive registered passes rather than mechanical layering. The 'II' marks it as a sequel to an earlier composition, letting the artist rework a motif across iterations — a serial habit common in twentieth-century sōsaku-hanga, where the printmaker designs, cuts, and prints each work himself rather than directing separate craftsmen. Within Kawachi's wider output, the piece reflects his ongoing effort to carry the discipline of classical block-cutting into a near-abstract contemporary idiom drawn equally from his oil painting training at Tama Art University and traditional Japanese craft.