Untitled

Another untitled print in Shimizu's body of mokuhanga work, made with water-based pigments hand-applied to [washi](/glossary/washi) using the [baren](/glossary/baren) in successive impressions from carved wooden blocks. Across her catalog, untitled prints fulfill several functions: technical exercises, color studies, edition variations, or completed pieces the artist chose to leave without a referential title. The mokuhanga method—water-based rather than oil-based, hand-printed rather than press-printed—produces a surface where pigment sits in and on the paper rather than forming a film over it, allowing the washi's fiber texture to remain visible. Her prints typically demonstrate careful [kento](/glossary/kento) registration and a disciplined color economy, often working with three to seven blocks per image. As an early non-Japanese practitioner who trained extensively in the traditional method, having studied in Japan from the mid-1970s, her continued production represents a sustained transmission of the technique outside its home country. American subject matter, when present, links to centuries-old Japanese material practice.