Hanga
Her Own Interpretation by Nana Shiomi — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

Her Own Interpretation

by Nana Shiomi

Medium:
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Image courtesy of
Hanga Ten

Description

Paired with "His Own Interpretation," this print works through gendered readings of a shared subject — the title implies that two viewers (or makers, or characters) generate divergent meanings from common material. The composition likely depicts a figure or scene rendered with attention to feminine perspective, executed in Shiomi's characteristic mokuhanga vocabulary of carved planes and water-based pigment washes on washi. Where Shiomi's nature-derived work tends toward abstraction, the "Interpretation" pair sits closer to the figurative tradition, possibly drawing on bijin-ga conventions while reframing them through a contemporary critique of how gender shapes seeing. The diptych's parallel structure invites direct visual comparison — small differences in composition, color, or gesture between the two panels carry the conceptual weight. Mokuhanga's history is itself a site of gendered authorship: ukiyo-e was made overwhelmingly by men, and Shiomi's work as a contemporary woman artist in the medium gives the title an additional reflexive layer beyond its immediate subject.

More Prints by Nana Shiomi

Frequently Asked Questions

Her Own Interpretation was created by Nana Shiomi (塩見奈々).