Hibiki 5

Fifth in Bligh's Hibiki (響) sequence, this print continues the series' investigation of resonance translated into visual layering. Where serial mokuhanga in the traditional [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) idiom typically varied subject across a set, Bligh's numbered Hibiki prints instead vary the registration, color weight, and [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) handling of related abstract fields, so each iteration reads as a different harmonic of the same underlying motif. The composition is built up through multiple block impressions on dampened [washi](/glossary/washi), with the [baren](/glossary/baren) controlling how thoroughly pigment transfers at each pass. This serial method — closer to the variations of a musical theme than to ukiyo-e's narrative print sets — was one of Bligh's contributions to contemporary mokuhanga practice. As a teacher at Tama Art University and across institutions in Ireland, Japan, the United States, and Scotland, Bligh carried this serial-abstract approach into her workshops, shaping how a generation of Irish printmakers came to understand water-based woodblock printing.