Tabi 41

Kunio Kaneko (b. 1947) is a contemporary Japanese printmaker working within the sosaku-hanga tradition, which distinguishes itself from earlier woodblock practice by requiring the artist to carve and print the work independently, without specialist artisans. His Tabi series constitutes an extended body of work drawing on the classical Japanese association between travel (tabi) and meditation, evoking the poetic journey tradition of michiyuki literature and the haiku travel diary. Within this sequence, Tabi 41 represents a single stage in an ongoing visual exploration rather than a self-contained subject. Kaneko's graphic approach—which typically employs strong, deliberate line work, areas of flat or graduated color, and close attention to the physical qualities of dampened washi paper under the baren—positions the works as objects that bear the evidence of their own making. The dual meaning encoded in the series title, connecting journey with the footwear that makes walking possible, is characteristic of the series' embedded conceptual structure.