papa in pampa

Papa in pampa (草原のおじさん, 'Man in the Grassland') depicts an older male figure situated within an open grassland, the horizontal 36 × 52 cm format extending laterally to set the figure against expansive terrain. As a drypoint, the image is incised directly into a metal plate with a needle; the raised burr along each scratched line catches ink to produce the soft, slightly fuzzy edges characteristic of the technique, distinct from the cleaner bite of etching and limiting editions to a small number of impressions before the burr wears down. The Japanese title's use of おじさん (a familiar term for an older man rather than a proper name) keeps the figure typological rather than portrait-like, while the English transliteration 'papa in pampa' layers a cross-linguistic wordplay onto the subject. Selected for the 68th CWAJ Print Show in 2025, the print represents Kusanagi's current direction following her training at Bigaku-gakkou: small-to-medium-scale intaglio compositions placing a solitary figure within a natural setting, pursuing the line-based vocabulary of Western intaglio rather than the woodblock tradition historically associated with Japanese printmaking.