Sharkskin pattern

Sharkskin, or samé / samegawa, is a long-established Japanese decorative motif consisting of small dots arranged in dense fan-like or scaled formations, originally derived from the dried skin of rays and sharks used to dress sword hilts. The pattern entered textile design and stencil dyeing (katazome) and from there spread into woodblock-printed papers and graphic works. As an isolated print subject, samegawa departs from figurative tradition entirely and aligns with the abstract or pattern-based current that ran through twentieth-century sōsaku-hanga, where artists investigated pure design alongside narrative imagery. In mokuhanga, rendering a sharkskin pattern requires precise block carving — each dot must register cleanly across the field — and may be accomplished through karazuri embossing, flat color overlays, or layered tonal blocks printed onto washi with baren pressure. Within Takasawa Keiichi's catalog, the appearance of two sharkskin pattern prints alongside multiple female studies indicates an artist comfortable working between figuration and ornament.