Pattern of the wind

Tagged as geometric, this print likely treats wind not through representational depiction but through patterning — rhythmic, repeating forms standing in for directional movement, gust, or atmospheric texture. Such a translation of an intangible subject into formal pattern aligns with twentieth-century Japanese printmaking's interest in abstraction, where natural phenomena were distilled into structural motifs rather than rendered narratively. The mokuhanga technique supports this approach: carved blocks press flat color fields and crisp linear divisions into damp [washi](/glossary/washi) using a [baren](/glossary/baren), while [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation can soften the edges of individual elements without disrupting the overall structure. The print pairs conceptually with Pattern of dreams, its geometric companion in this group, suggesting Nakajima Kiyoshi treated patterning as a sustained formal interest applied to multiple subjects — dreams, wind — where representational depiction would be ill-suited. Without confirmed publication records or career chronology, the place of these geometric works within the artist's broader development cannot be precisely established, but their existence indicates participation in the wider twentieth-century Japanese move toward abstract printmaking.