Words of the wind

Words of the Wind continues Nakajima Kiyoshi's wind-themed sequence and approaches the subject through the conceit of language carried on moving air. Prints organised around such literary titles in modern mokuhanga frequently incorporate a figure — often a child or female subject — placed in a quiet outdoor setting where minor details such as a turning collar, a stray lock of hair, or a leaning stem indicate the wind's presence. Construction depends on registered impressions from multiple carved cherry-wood blocks, with bokashi gradations introducing soft transitions between flat colour fields on absorbent washi paper. This print is one of a related group whose titles include Wind from Faraway, Smell of the Wind, and The Other Side of the Wind, indicating a deliberate serial structure. Within Nakajima's wider practice, which is documented mainly through dealer inventories rather than scholarly publications, the wind series represents a cohesive body of figurative and atmospheric work.