Ray Ching

This print is titled for Ray Ching, the New Zealand–born painter known for finely observed renderings of birds — work that situates him within a contemporary lineage of ornithological illustration. The naming carries an oblique resonance for mokuhanga, whose Edo-period repertoire included a substantial kacho-e (bird-and-flower) tradition: prints by Hokusai, Hiroshige, and others rendered birds with the disciplined economy the medium imposes. Reed's procedure remains traditional: cherry blocks carved and registered through kentō, water-based pigments bound with rice paste, dampened washi burnished by hand with a baren. The result is the flat, saturated colour and decisive carved line that distinguish mokuhanga from oil-based relief printing. Reed exhibited at the 2021 International Mokuhanga Conference in Nara, where the juried exhibition was organized around the theme of sumi. Bokashi gradations and the tonal range of black ink extend the medium's expressive scope without compromising its formal restraint.