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](/glossary/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](/glossary/washi) burnished by hand with a [baren](/glossary/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](/glossary/sumi). [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations and the tonal range of black ink extend the medium's expressive scope without compromising its formal restraint.