Untitled

Kiyochika's engagement with abstraction in woodblock printmaking stems partly from his study under the Western-style painter Shimooka Renjo in the 1870s, where he encountered principles of atmospheric perspective and chiaroscuro unfamiliar in the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) tradition. This untitled print may represent a direct investigation of those principles: a composition organized by the logic of light diffusion rather than by narrative content or topographic accuracy. The [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) technique, applied across a [washi](/glossary/washi) surface sized to hold fine gradations, allows Kiyochika to create the impression of illuminated air — the glow around a lantern, the diffuse light of an overcast night — as the print's primary visual subject.