Untitled

This untitled mokuhanga by Austrian printmaker Manfred Egger belongs to the body of work selected for the juried international exhibition at the 2021 International Mokuhanga Conference in Nara, an event organized around the theme of [sumi](/glossary/sumi)—the carbon-based black ink central to East Asian printmaking traditions. Without a descriptive title, the work invites attention to its formal qualities rather than narrative content, a tendency common among contemporary mokuhanga practitioners who often pursue abstraction or non-representational composition. The water-based pigments characteristic of mokuhanga, applied with a [baren](/glossary/baren) onto absorbent [washi](/glossary/washi), allow for tonal layering and the soft transitions known as [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi), where ink density shifts gradually across a printed area. Egger's participation in the IMC places him within the international circle of artists adapting Edo-period techniques—hand-carved blocks, rice-paste binders, water-soluble inks—to contemporary visual concerns. As an Austrian working in this Japanese medium, his prints reflect the broader globalization of mokuhanga since the late twentieth century, when the technique spread beyond Japan through workshops, residencies, and conferences.