Untitled

This untitled abstract print demonstrates Kiyochika's engagement with the color range available through multiple woodblock impressions, each carved from a separate block and applied in sequence to the same [washi](/glossary/washi) sheet. Abstract works of this type often involve chromatic layering—warm amber or ochre tones in middle registers transitioning to cooler blue-grays at the periphery—that echoes the lantern-lit and gas-lit scenes of modernizing Tokyo that formed his primary subject matter. The application of [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation, worked into the block surface with a dampened brush before inking, creates tonal passages that soften the ordinarily hard-edged boundaries of woodblock printing. Such studies likely informed the nocturnal palette developed more fully in his Meiji Tokyo cityscape series.