I Wonder if It's Spring

I Wonder if It's Spring (2025) is a horizontal woodcut measuring 55 × 73 cm, a medium-large format characteristic of Kurimoto's recent practice. The interrogative title positions the work within a tradition of seasonal observation, suggesting a transitional moment when winter has not fully receded — bare branches showing the first signs of bud, lingering frost alongside emerging undergrowth, or an overcast sky permitting only tentative warmth. Such ambiguity has long anchored Japanese landscape printmaking, where the kisetsu (seasonal feeling) is conveyed through restrained pictorial cues rather than overt declaration. As a contemporary practitioner trained at Tama Art University under Rei Yuki and Fumiaki Fukita, Kurimoto works within the lineage of the sosaku-hanga (creative print) movement, in which the artist designs, carves, and prints the block as a unified authorial act. The horizontal orientation and contemplative register align with the work's appearance at the 68th CWAJ Print Show 2025, alongside other contemporary woodcuts continuing the seasonal-and-place tradition sustained through the Nihon Hanga Kyokai.